Writings of Jerome - Against Jovinianus - Book II

The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Translated by the Hon. W. H. Fremantle, M.A.,
Canon of Canterbury Cathedral and Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, Oxford,

with the assistance of The Rev. G. Lewis, M.A.,
Of Balliol College, Oxford, Vicar of Dodderhill near Droitwick,

and The Rev. W. G. Martley, M.A.,
Of Balliol College, Oxford.

Under the editorial supervision of Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Church History in the Union Theological Semimary, New York,
and Henry Wace, D.D., Principal of King's College, London

Published in 1892 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.

Against Jovinianus.

Book II.

Jerome answers the second, third, and fourth propositions of
Jovinianus.

I. (c. 1-4). That those who have become regenerate cannot be
overthrown by the devil, Jerome (c. 1) puts it that they cannot be
tempted by the devil. He quotes 1 John i. 8-ii. 2, as shewing that
faithful men can be tempted and sin and need an advocate. The
expressions (3) in Heb. vi. as to those who crucify the Son of God
afresh do not apply to ordinary sins after baptism, as supposed by
Montanus and Novatus. The epistles to the Seven Churches show that the
lapsed may return. The Angels, and even our Lord Himself, (4) could be
tempted.

II. (c. 5-17). That there is no difference (morally) between one who
fasts and one who takes food with thanksgiving. Jovinian has quoted
(5) many texts of Scripture to show that God has made animals for
men's food. But (6) there are many other uses of animals besides food.
And there are many warnings like 1 Cor. vi. 13, as to the danger
arising from food. There are among the heathen (7) many instances of
abstinence. They recognize (8) the evil of sensual allurements, and
often, like Crates the Theban, (9) have cast away what would tempt
them; the senses, they teach, (10) should be subject to reason; and,
that (11) except for athletes (Christians do not want to be like Milo
of Crotona) bread and water suffice. Horace (12), Xenophon and other
eminent Greeks (13), the Essenes and the Brahmans (14), as well as
philosophers like Diogenes, testify to the value of abstinence. The
Old Testament stories (15) of Esau's pottage, of the lusting of Israel
for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and those in the New Testament of Anna,
Cornelius, &c., commend abstinence. If some heretics inculcate fasting
(16) in such a way as to despise the gifts of God, and weak Christians
are not to be judged for their use of flesh, those who seek the higher
life (17) will find a help in abstinence.

III. (c. 18-34). The fourth proposition of Jovinianus, that all who
are saved will have equal reward, is refuted (19) by the various
yields of thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold in the parable of the
sower, by (20) the "stars differing in glory" of 1 Cor. xv. 41. It is
strange (21) to find the advocate of self-indulgence now claiming
equality to the saints. But (22) as there were differences in Ezekiel
between cattle and cattle, so in St. Paul between those who built gold
or stubble on the one foundation. The differences of gifts (23), of
punishments (24), of guilt (25), as in Pilate and the Chief Priests,
of the produce of the good seed (26), of the mansions promised in
heaven (27-29), of the judgment upon sins both in the church and in
Scripture (30-31), of those called at different times to the vineyard
(32) are arguments for the diversity of rewards. The parable of the
talents (33) holds out as rewards differences of station, and so does
the church (34) in its different orders.

Jerome now recapitulates (35) and appeals (36)against the licentious
views of Jovinianus, which have already induced many virgins to break
their vows; and which, as the new Roman heresy (37), he calls upon the
Imperial City (38) to reject.

1. The second proposition of Jovinianus is that the baptized cannot be
tempted [4652] by the devil. And to escape the imputation of folly in
saying this, he adds: "But if any are tempted, it only shows that they
were baptized with water, not with the Spirit, as we read was the case
with Simon Magus." Hence it is that John says, [4653] "Whosoever is
begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he
cannot sin, because he is begotten of God. In this the children of God
are manifest, and the children of the Devil." And at the end of the
Epistle, [4654] "Whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but his
being begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not."

2. This would be a real difficulty and one for ever incapable of
solution were it not solved by the witness of John himself, who
immediately goes on to say, [4655] "My little children, guard
yourselves from idols." If everyone that is born of God sinneth not,
and cannot be tempted by the devil, how is it that he bids them beware
of temptation? Again in the same Epistle we read: [4656] "If we say
that we have no sins, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we
have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." I
suppose that John was baptized and was writing to the baptized: I
imagine too that all sin is of the devil. Now John confesses himself a
sinner, and hopes for forgiveness of sins after baptism. My friend
Jovinianus says, [4657] "Touch me not, for I am clean." What then?
Does the Apostle contradict himself? By no means. In the same passage
he gives his reason for thus speaking: [4658] "My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin. But if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but
also for the whole world. And hereby know we that we know him, if we
keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso
keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also to walk even as he walked." My reason for telling
you, little children, that everyone who is born of God sinneth not, is
that you may not sin, and that you may know that so long as you sin
not you abide in the birth which God has given you. Yea, they who
abide in that birth cannot sin. [4659] "For what communion hath light
with darkness? Or Christ with Belial?" As day is distinct from night,
so righteousness and unrighteousness, sin and good works, Christ and
Antichrist cannot blend. If we give Christ a lodging-place in our
hearts, we banish the devil from thence. If we sin and the devil enter
through the gate of sin, Christ will immediately withdraw. Hence David
after sinning says: [4660] "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,"
that is, the joy which he had lost by sinning. [4661] "He who saith, I
know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth
is not in him." Christ is called the truth: [4662] "I am the way, the
truth, and the life." In vain do we make our boast in him whose
commandments we keep not. To him that knoweth what is good, and doeth
it not, it is sin. [4663] "As the body apart from the spirit is dead,
even so faith apart from works is dead." And we must not think it a
great matter to know the only God, when even devils believe and
tremble. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk
even as he walked." Our opponent may choose whichever of the two he
likes; we give him his choice. Does he abide in Christ, or not? If he
abide, let him then walk as Christ walked. But if there is [4664]
rashness in professing to copy the virtues of our Lord, he does not
abide in Christ, for he does not walk as did Christ. [4665] "He did
not sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: when he was reviled, he
reviled not again, and as a lamb is dumb before its shearer, so opened
he not his mouth." To Him came the prince of this world, and found
nothing in Him: although He had done no sin, God made Him sin for us.
But we, according to the Epistle of James, [4666] "all stumble in many
things," and [4667] "no one is pure from sin, no not if his life be
but a day long." [4668] For who will boast "that he has a clean heart?
or who will be sure that he is pure from sin?" And we are held guilty
after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Hence David says, [4669]
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me." And the blessed Job, [4670] "Though I be righteous my mouth will
speak wickedness, and though I be perfect, I shall be found perverse.
If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet
wilt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me."
But that we may not utterly despair and think that if we sin after
baptism we cannot be saved, he immediately checks the tendency: [4671]
"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. And not for
ours only, but also for the whole world." He addresses this to
baptized believers, and he promises them the Lord as an advocate for
their offences. He does not say: If you fall into sin, you have an
advocate with the Father, Christ, and He is the propitiation for your
sins: you might then say that he was addressing those whose baptism
had been destitute of the true faith: but what he says is this, "We
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he is the
propitiation for our sins." And not only for the sins of John and his
contemporaries, but for those of the whole world. Now in "the whole
world" are included apostles and all the faithful, and a clear proof
is established that sin after baptism is possible. It is useless for
us to have an advocate Jesus Christ, if sin be impossible.

3. The apostle Peter, to whom it was said, [4672] "He that is bathed
needeth not to wash again," and [4673] "Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my Church," through fear of a maid-servant denied
Him. Our Lord himself says, [4674] "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked
to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I made supplication
for thee, that thy faith fail not." And in the same place, "Watch and
pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak." If you reply that this was said before the
Passion, we certainly say after the Passion, in the Lord's prayer,
[4675] "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." If we do
not sin after baptism, why do we ask that we may be forgiven our sins,
which were already forgiven in baptism? Why do we pray that we may not
enter into temptation, and that we may be delivered from the evil one,
if the devil cannot tempt those who are baptized? The case is
different if this prayer belongs to the Catechumens, and is not
adapted to faithful Christians. Paul, the chosen vessel, [4676]
chastised his body, and brought it into subjection, lest after
preaching to others he himself should be found a reprobate, and [4677]
he tells that there was given to him "a thorn in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan to buffet" him. And to the Corinthians he writes:
[4678] "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his
craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is
toward Christ." And elsewhere: [4679] "But to whom ye forgive
anything, I forgive also: for what I also have forgiven, if I have
forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the person of
Christ: that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are
not ignorant of his devices." And again: [4680] "There hath no
temptation taken you, but such as man can bear; but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will
with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able
to endure it." And, [4681] "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take
heed lest he fall." And to the Galatians: [4682] "Ye were running
well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" And
elsewhere: [4683] "We would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and
again; and Satan hindered us." And to the married he says: [4684] "Be
together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your
incontinency." And again: [4685] "But I say, walk by the Spirit and ye
shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary
the one to the other: that ye may not do the things that ye would." We
are a compound of the two, and must endure the strife of the two
substances. And to the Ephesians: [4686] "Our wrestling is not against
flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers,
against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places." Does any one think that we are
safe, and that it is right to fall asleep when once we have been
baptized? And so, too, in the epistle to the Hebrews: [4687] "For as
touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good
word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it
is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
Surely we cannot deny that they have been baptized who have been
illuminated, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been made
partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God.
But if the baptized cannot sin, how is it now that the Apostle says,
"And have fallen away"? [4688] Montanus and [4689] Novatus would smile
at this, for they contend that it is impossible to renew again through
repentance those who have crucified to themselves the Son of God, and
put Him to an open shame. He therefore corrects this mistake by
saying: [4690] "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you,
and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak; for God is
not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye shewed
towards his name, in that ye ministered unto the Saints, and still do
minister." And truly the unrighteousness of God would be great, if He
merely punished sin, and did not welcome good works. I have so spoken,
says the Apostle, to withdraw you from your sins, and to make you more
careful through fear of despair. But, beloved, I am persuaded better
things of you, and things that accompany salvation. For it is not
accordant with the righteousness of God to forget good works, and the
fact that you have ministered and do minister to the Saints for His
name's sake, and to remember sins only. The Apostle James also,
knowing that the baptized can be tempted, and fall of their own free
choice, says: [4691] "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for
when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which
the Lord promised to them that love him." And that we may not think
that we are tempted by God, as we read in Genesis Abraham was, he
adds: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God
cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man. But each
man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then
the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is
full grown, bringeth forth death." God created us with free will, and
we are not forced by necessity either to virtue or to vice. Otherwise,
if there be necessity, there is no crown. As in good works it is God
who brings them to perfection, for it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that pitieth and gives us help that we
may be able to reach the goal: so in things wicked and sinful, the
seeds within us give the impulse, and these are brought to maturity by
the devil. When he sees that we are building upon the foundation of
Christ, hay, wood, stubble, then he applies the match. Let us then
build gold, silver, costly stones, and he will not venture to tempt
us: although even thus there is not sure and safe possession. For the
lion lurks in ambush to slay the innocent. [4692] "Potters' vessels
are proved by the furnace, and just men by the trial of tribulation."
And in another place it is written: [4693] "My son, when thou comest
to serve the Lord, prepare thyself for temptation." Again, the same
James says: [4694] "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. For
if any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a
man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself,
and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."
It was useless to warn them to add works to faith, if they could not
sin after baptism. He tells us that [4695] "whosoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all."
Which of us is without sin? [4696] "God hath shut up all unto
disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all." Peter also says:
[4697] "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation."
And concerning false teachers: [4698] "These are springs without
water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness
hath been reserved. For, uttering proud words of vanity, they entice
in the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who had just
escaped, and have turned back to error." Does not the Apostle in these
words seem to you to have depicted the new party of ignorance? For, as
it were, they open the fountains of knowledge and yet have no water:
they promise a shower of doctrine like prophetic clouds which have
been visited by the truth of God, and are driven by the storms of
devils and vices. They speak great things, and their talk is nothing
but pride: [4699] "But every one is unclean with God who is lifted up
in his own heart." Like those who had just escaped from their sins,
they return to their own error, and persuade men to luxury, and to the
delights of eating and the gratification of the flesh. For who is not
glad to hear them say: "Let us eat and drink, and reign for ever"? The
wise and prudent they call corrupt, but pay more attention to the
honey-tongued. John the apostle, or rather the Saviour in the person
of John, writes thus to the angel of the Church of Ephesus: [4700] "I
know thy works and thy toil and patience, and that thou didst bear for
my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against
thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I
will come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place,
except thou repent." Similarly He urges the other churches, Smyrna,
Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, to repentance, and
threatens them unless they return to the former works. And in Sardis
He says He has a few who have not defiled their garments, and they
shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy. But they to whom He
says: "Remember from whence thou art fallen"; and, "Behold the devil
is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried"; and,
"I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is"; and,
"Remember how thou hast received, and didst hear, and keep it, and
repent," and so on, were of course believers, and baptized, who once
stood, but fell through sin.

4. I delayed for a little while the production of proofs from the Old
Testament, because, wherever the Old Testament is against them they
are accustomed to cry out that [4701] the Law and the Prophets were
until John. But who does not know that under the other dispensation of
God all the saints of past times were of equal merit with Christians
at the present day? As Abraham in days gone by pleased God in wedlock,
so virgins now please him in perpetual virginity. He served the Law
and his own times; let us now serve the Gospel and our times, [4702]
upon whom the ends of the ages have come. David the chosen one, the
man after God's own heart, who had performed all His pleasure, and who
in a certain psalm had said, [4703] "Judge me, O Lord, for I have
walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord and shall
not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my
heart," even he was afterwards tempted by the devil; and repenting of
his sin said, [4704] "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy
loving-kindness." He would have a great sin blotted out by great
loving-kindness. Solomon, beloved of the Lord, and to whom God had
twice revealed Himself, because he loved women forsook the love of
God. It is related in the [4705] Book of Days that Manasses the wicked
king was restored after the Babylonish captivity to his former rank.
And Josiah, a holy man, [4706] was slain by the king of Egypt on the
plain of Megiddo. [4707] Joshua also, the son of Josedech and
high-priest, although he was a type of our Saviour Who bore our sins,
and united to Himself a church of alien birth from among the Gentiles,
is nevertheless, according to the letter of Scripture, represented in
filthy garments after he attained to the priesthood, and with the
devil standing at his right hand; and white raiment is afterwards
restored to him. It is needless to tell how Moses and Aaron [4708]
offended God at the water of strife, and did not enter the land of
promise. For the blessed Job relates that even the angels and every
creature can sin. [4709] "Shall mortal man," he says, "be just before
God? Shall a man be spotless in his works? If he putteth no trust in
his servants, and chargeth his angels with folly, how much more them
that dwell in houses of clay," amongst whom are we, and made of the
same clay too. [4710] "The life of man is a warfare upon earth."
[4711] Lucifer fell who was sending to all nations, and he who was
nurtured in a paradise of delight as one of the twelve precious
stones, was wounded and went down to hell from the mount of God. Hence
the Saviour says in the Gospel: [4712] "I beheld Satan falling as
lightning from heaven." If he fell who stood on so sublime a height,
who may not fall? If there are falls in heaven, how much more on
earth! And yet though Lucifer be fallen (the old serpent after his
fall), [4713] "his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the
muscles of his belly. The great trees are overshadowed by him, and he
sleepeth beside the reed, the rush, and the sedge." [4714] He is king
over all things that are in the waters--that is to say in the seat of
pleasure and luxury, of propagation of children, and of the
fertilisation of the marriage bed. [4715] "For who can strip off his
outer garment? Who can open the doors of his face? Nations fatten upon
him, and the tribes of Phenicia divide him." And lest haply the reader
in his secret thought might imagine that those tribes of Phenicia and
peoples of Ethiopia only are meant by those to whom the dragon was
given for food, we immediately find a reference to those who are
crossing the sea of this world, and are hastening to reach the haven
of salvation: [4716] "His head stands in the ships of the fishermen
like an anvil that cannot be wearied: [4717] he counteth iron as
straw, and brass as rotten wood. And all the gold of the sea under him
is as mire. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he values the sea
like a pot of ointment, and the blackness of the deep as a captive. He
beholdeth everything that is high." And my friend Jovinianus thinks he
can gain an easy mastery over him. Why speak of holy men and angels,
who, being creatures of God, are of course capable of sin? He dared to
tempt the Son of God, and though smitten through and through with our
Lord's first and second answer, nevertheless raised his head, and when
thrice wounded, withdrew only for a time, and deferred rather than
removed the temptation. And we flatter ourselves on the ground of our
baptism, which though it put away the sins of the past, cannot keep us
for the time to come, unless the baptized keep their hearts with all
diligence.

5. At length we have arrived at the question of food, and are
confronted by our third difficulty. "All things were created to serve
for the use of mortal men." And as man, a rational animal, in a sense
the owner and tenant of the world, is subject to God, and worships his
Creator, so all things living were created either for the food of men,
or for clothing, or for tilling the earth, or conveying the fruits
thereof, or to be the companions of man, and hence, because they are
man's [4718] helpers, they have their name jumenta. [4719] `What is
man,' says David, `that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man,
that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than
the angels, and crownest him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thine hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field:
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the seas.' Granted, he says, that the ox was
created for ploughing, the horse for riding, the dog for watching,
goats for their milk, sheep for their fleeces. What is the use of
swine if we may not eat their flesh? of roes, stags, fallow-deer,
boars, hares, and such like game? of geese, wild and tame? of wild
ducks and [4720] fig-peckers? of woodcocks? of coots? of thrushes? Why
do hens run about our houses? If they are not eaten, all these
creatures were created by God for nothing. But what need is there of
argument when Scripture clearly teaches that every moving creature,
like herbs and vegetables, were given to us for food, and the Apostle
cries aloud [4721] `All things are clean to the clean, and nothing is
to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving,' and [4722] tells
us that men will come in the last days, forbidding to marry, and to
eat meats, which God created for use? The Lord himself was called by
the Pharisees a wine-bibber and a glutton, the friend of publicans and
sinners, because he did not decline the invitation of Zacchæus to
dinner, and went to the marriage-feast. But it is a different matter
if, as you may foolishly contend, he went to the dinner intending to
fast, and after the manner of deceivers said, I eat this, not that; I
do not drink the wine which I created out of water. He did not make
water, but wine, the type of his blood. After the resurrection he ate
a fish and part of a honey-comb, not sesame nuts and service-berries.
The apostle, Peter, did not wait like a Jew for the stars to peep, but
went upon the house-top to dine at the sixth hour. Paul in the ship
broke bread, not dried figs. When Timothy's stomach was out of order,
he advised him to drink wine, not perry. In abstaining from meats they
please their own fancy: as though superstitious Gentiles did not
observe the [4723] rites of abstinence connected with the Mother of
the Gods and with Isis."

6. I will follow in detail the views now expounded, and before I come
to Scripture and show by it that fasting is pleasing to God, and
chastity accepted by him, I will meet philosophic argument with
argument, and will prove that we are not followers of Empedocles and
Pythagoras, who on account of their doctrine of the transmigration of
souls think nothing which lives and moves should be eaten, and look
upon him who fells a fir-tree or an oak as equally guilty with the
parricide or the poisoner: but that we worship our Creator Who made
all things for the use of man. And as the ox was created for
ploughing, the horse for riding, dogs for watching, goats for milk,
sheep for their wool: so it was with swine and stags, and roes and
hares, and other animals: but the immediate purpose of their creation
was not that they might serve for food, but for other uses of men. For
if everything that moves and lives was made for food, and prepared for
the stomach, let my opponents tell me why elephants, lions, leopards,
and wolves were created; why vipers, scorpions, bugs, lice, and fleas;
why the vulture, the eagle, the crow, the hawk; why whales, dolphins,
seals, and small snails were created. Which of us ever eats the flesh
of a lion, a viper, a vulture, a stork, a kite, or the worms that
crawl upon our shores? As then these have their proper uses, so may we
say that other beasts, fishes, birds, were created not for eating, but
for medicine. In short, to how many uses the flesh of vipers, from
which we make our antidotes against poison, may be applied, physicians
know well. Ivory dust is an ingredient in many remedies. Hyena's gall
restores brightness to the eyes, and its dung and that of dogs cures
gangrenous wounds. And (it may seem strange to the reader) Galen
asserts in his treatise on Simples, that human dung is of service in a
multitude of cases. Naturalists say that snake-skin, boiled in oil,
gives wonderful relief in ear-ache. What to the uninitiated seems so
useless as a bug? Yet, suppose a leech to have fastened on the throat,
as soon as the odour of a bug is inhaled the leech is vomited out, and
difficulty in urinating is relieved by the same application. As for
the fat of pigs, geese, fowls, and pheasants, how useful they are is
told in all medical works, and if you read these books you will see
there that the vulture has as many curative properties as it has
limbs. Peacock's dung allays the inflammation of gout. Cranes, storks,
eagle's gall, hawk's blood, the ostrich, frogs, chameleons, swallow's
dung and flesh--in what diseases these are suitable remedies, I could
tell if it were my purpose to discuss bodily ailments and their cure.
If you think proper you may read Aristotle and [4724] Theophrastus in
prose, or [4725] Marcellus of Side, and our [4726] Flavius, who
discourse on these subjects in hexameter verse; the [4727] second
Pliny also, and [4728] Dioscorides, and others, both naturalists and
physicians, who assign to every herb, every stone, every animal
whether reptile, bird, or fish, its own use in the art of which they
treat. So then when you ask me why the pig was created, I immediately
reply, as if two boys were disputing, by asking you why were vipers
and scorpions? You must not judge that anything from the hand of God
is superfluous, because there are many beasts and birds which your
palate rejects. But this may perhaps look more like contentiousness
and pugnacity than truth. Let me tell you therefore that pigs and
wild-boars, and stags, and the rest of living creatures were created,
that soldiers, athletes, sailors, rhetoricians, miners, and other
slaves of hard toil, who need physical strength, might have food: and
also those who carry arms and provisions, who wear themselves out with
the work of hand or foot, who ply the oar, who need good lungs to
shout and speak, who level mountains and sleep out rain or fair. But
our religion does not train boxers, athletes, sailors, soldiers, or
ditchers, but followers of wisdom, who devote themselves to the
worship of God, and know why they were created and are in the world
from which they are impatient to depart. Hence also the Apostle says:
[4729] "When I am weak, then am I strong." And [4730] "Though our
outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day."
And [4731] "I have the desire to depart and be with Christ." And,
[4732] "Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."
Are all commanded [4733] not to have two coats, nor food in their
scrip, money in their purse, a staff in the hand, shoes on the feet?
or to sell all they possess and give to the poor, and follow Jesus? Of
course not: but the command is for those who wish to be perfect. On
the contrary John the Baptist lays down one rule for the soldiers,
another for the publicans. But the Lord says in the Gospel to him who
had boasted of having kept the whole law: [4734] "If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
come, follow me." That He might not seem to lay a heavy burden on
unwilling shoulders, He sent His hearer away with full power to please
himself, saying "If thou wilt be perfect." And so I too say to you: If
you wish to be perfect, it is good not to drink wine, and eat flesh.
If you wish to be perfect, it is better to enrich the mind than to
stuff the body. But if you are an infant and fond of the cooks and
their preparations, no one will snatch the dainties out of your mouth.
Eat and drink, and, if you like, with Israel rise up and play, and
sing [4735] "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die." Let
him eat and drink, who looks for death when he has feasted, and who
says with Epicurus, "There is nothing after death, and death itself is
nothing." We believe Paul when he says in tones of thunder: [4736]
"Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats. But God will destroy
both them and it."

7. I have quoted these few passages of Scripture to show that we are
at one with the philosophers. But who does not know that no universal
law of nature regulates the food of all nations, and that each eats
those things of which it has abundance? For instance, the Arabians and
Saracens, and all the wild tribes of the desert live on camel's milk
and flesh: for the camel, to suit the climate and barren soil of those
regions, is easily bred and reared. They think it wicked to eat the
flesh of swine. Why? Because pigs which fatten on acorns, chestnuts,
roots of ferns, and barley, are seldom or never found among them: and
if they were found, they would not afford the nourishment of which we
spoke just now. The exact opposite is the case with the northern
peoples. If you were to force them to eat the flesh of asses and
camels, they would think it the same as though they were compelled to
devour a wolf or a crow. In Pontus and Phrygia a pater-familias pays a
good price for fat white worms with blackish heads, which breed in
decayed wood. And as with us the woodcock and fig-pecker, the mullet
and scar, are reputed delicacies, so with them it is a luxury to eat
the [4737] xylophagus. Again, because throughout the glowing wastes of
the desert clouds of locusts are found, it is customary with the
peoples of the East and of Libya to feed on locusts. John the Baptist
proves the truth of this. Compel a Phrygian or a native of Pontus to
eat a locust, and he will think it scandalous. Force a Syrian, an
African, or Arabian to swallow worms, he will have the same contempt
for them as for flies, millepedes, and lizards, although the Syrians
are accustomed to eat land-crocodiles, and the Africans even green
lizards. In Egypt and Palestine, owing to the scarcity of cattle no
one eats beef, or makes the flesh of bulls or oxen, or calves, a
portion of their food. Moreover, in my province [4738] it is
considered a crime to eat veal. Accordingly the Emperor Valens
recently promulgated a law throughout the East, prohibiting the
killing and eating of calves. He had in view the interests of
agriculture, and wished to check the bad practice of the commoner sort
of the people who imitated the Jews in devouring the flesh of calves,
instead of fowls and sucking pigs. The Nomad tribes, and the [4739]
Troglodytes, and Scythians, and the barbarous [4740] Huns with whom we
have recently become acquainted, eat flesh half raw. Moreover the
Icthyophagi, a wandering race on the shores of the Red Sea, broil fish
on the stones made hot by the sun, and subsist on this poor food. The
[4741] Sarmatians, the [4742] Chuadi, the [4743] Vandals, and
countless other races, delight in the flesh of horses and wolves. Why
should I speak of other nations when I myself, a youth on a visit to
Gaul, heard that the Atticoti, a British tribe, eat human flesh, and
that although they find herds of swine, and droves of large or small
cattle in the woods, it is their custom to cut off the buttocks of the
shepherds and the breasts of their women, and to regard them as the
greatest delicacies? The Scots have no wives of their own; as though
they read Plato's Republic and took Cato for their leader, no man
among them has his own wife, but like beasts they indulge their lust
to their hearts' content. The Persians, Medes, Indians, and
Ethiopians, peoples on a par with Rome itself, have intercourse with
mothers and grandmothers, with daughters and granddaughters. The
[4744] Massagetæ and [4745] Derbices think those persons most unhappy
who die of sickness--and when parents, kindred, or friends reach old
age, they are murdered and devoured. It is thought better that they
should be eaten by the people themselves than by the worms. The [4746]
Tibareni crucify those whom they have loved before when they have
grown old. The [4747] Hyrcani throw them out half alive to the birds
and dogs: the Caspians leave them dead for the same beasts. The
Scythians bury alive with the remains of the dead those who were
beloved of the deceased. The Bactrians throw their old men to dogs
which they rear for the very purpose, and when Stasanor, Alexander's
general, wished to correct the practice, he almost lost his province.
Force an Egyptian to drink sheep's milk: drive, if you can, a
Pelusiote to eat an onion. Almost every city in Egypt venerates its
own beasts and monsters, and whatever be the object of worship, that
they think inviolable and sacred. Hence it is that their towns also
are named after animals Leonto, Cyno, Lyco, Busyris, Thmuis, which is,
being interpreted, a he-goat. And to make us understand what sort of
gods Egypt always welcomed, one of their cities was recently called
[4748] Antinous after Hadrian's favourite. You see clearly then that
not only in eating, but also in burial, in wedlock, and in every
department of life, each race follows its own practice and peculiar
usages, and takes that for the law of nature which is most familiar to
it. But suppose all nations alike ate flesh, and let that be
everywhere lawful which the place produces. How does it concern us
whose conversation is in heaven? who, as well as Pythagoras and
Empedocles and all lovers of wisdom, are not bound to the
circumstances of our birth, but of our new birth: who by abstinence
subjugate our refractory flesh, eager to follow the allurements of
lust? The eating of flesh, and drinking of wine, and fulness of
stomach, is the seed-plot of lust. And so the comic poet says, [4749]
"Venus shivers unless Ceres and Bacchus be with her."

8. Through the five senses, as through open windows, vice has access
to the soul. The metropolis and citadel of the mind cannot be taken
unless the enemy have previously entered by its doors. The soul is
distressed by the disorder they produce, and is led captive by sight,
hearing, smell, taste, and touch. If any one delights in the sports of
the circus, or the struggles of athletes, the versatility of actors,
the figure of women, in splendid jewels, dress, silver and gold, and
other things of the kind, the liberty of the soul is lost through the
windows of the eyes, and the prophet's words are fulfilled: [4750]
"Death is come up into our windows." Again, our sense of hearing is
flattered by the tones of various instruments and the modulations of
the voice; and whatever enters the ear by the songs of poets and
comedians, by the pleasantries and verses of pantomimic actors,
weakens the manly fibre of the mind. Then, again, no one but a
profligate denies that the profligate and licentious find a delight in
sweet odours, different sorts of incense, fragrant balsam, [4751]
kuphi, [4752] oenanthe, and musk, which is nothing but the skin of a
foreign rat. And who does not know that gluttony is the mother of
avarice, and, as it were, fetters the heart and keeps it pressed down
upon the earth? For the sake of a temporary gratification of the
appetite, land and sea are ransacked, and we toil and sweat our lives
through, that we may send down our throats honey-wine and costly food.
The desire to handle other men's persons, and the burning lust for
women, is a passion bordering on insanity. To gratify this sense we
languish, grow angry, throw ourselves about with joy, indulge envy,
engage in rivalry, are filled with anxiety, and when we have
terminated the pleasure with more or less repentance, we once more
take fire, and want to do that which we again regret doing. Where,
then, that which we may call the thin edge of disturbance, has entered
the citadel of the mind through these doors, what will become of its
liberty, its endurance, its thought of God, particularly since the
sense of touch can picture to itself even bygone pleasures, and
through the recollection of vice forces the soul to take part in them,
and after a manner to practice what it does not actually commit?

9. At the call of reasoning such as this, many philosophers have
forsaken the crowded cities, and their pleasure gardens in the suburbs
with well-watered grounds, shady trees, twittering birds, crystal
fountains, murmuring brooks, and many charms for eye and ear, lest
through luxury and abundance of riches, the firmness of the mind
should be enfeebled, and its purity debauched. For there is no good in
frequently seeing objects which may one day lead to your captivity, or
in making trial of things which you would find it hard to do without.
Even the Pythagoreans shunned company of this kind and were wont to
dwell in solitary places in the desert. The Platonists also and Stoics
lived in the groves and porticos of temples, that, admonished by the
sanctity of their restricted abode, they might think of nothing but
virtue. Plato, moreover, himself, when [4753] Diogenes trampled on his
couches with muddy feet (he being a rich man), chose a house called
[4754] Academia at some distance from the city, in a spot not only
lonely but unhealthy, so that he might have leisure for philosophy.
His object was that by constant anxiety about sickness the assaults of
lust might be defeated, and that his disciples might experience no
pleasure but that afforded by the things they learned. We have read of
some who took out their own eyes lest through sight they might lose
the contemplation of philosophy. Hence it was that [4755] Crates the
famous Theban, after throwing into the sea a considerable weight of
gold, exclaimed, "Go to the bottom, ye evil lusts: I will drown you
that you may not drown me." But if anyone thinks to enjoy keenly meat
and drink in excess, and at the same time to devote himself to
philosophy, that is to say, to live in luxury and yet not to be
hampered by the vices attendant on luxury, he deceives himself. For if
it be the case that even when far distant from them we are frequently
caught in the snares of nature, and are compelled to desire those
things of which we have a scant supply: what folly it is to think we
are free when we are surrounded by the nets of pleasure! We think of
what we see, hear, smell, taste, handle, and are led to desire the
thing which affords us pleasure. That the mind sees and hears, and
that we can neither hear nor see anything unless our senses are fixed
upon the objects of sight and hearing, is an old saw. It is difficult,
or rather impossible, when we are swimming in luxury and pleasure not
to think of what we are doing: and it is an idle pretence which some
men put forward [4756] that they can take their fill of pleasure with
their faith and purity and mental uprightness unimpaired. It is a
violation of nature to revel in pleasure, and the Apostle gives a
caution against this very thing when he says, [4757] "She that giveth
herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth."

10. The bodily senses are like horses madly racing, but the soul like
a charioteer holds the reins. And as horses without a driver go at
break-neck speed, so the body if it be not governed by the reasonable
soul rushes to its own destruction. The philosophers make use of
another illustration of the relations between soul and body; [4758]
they say the body is a boy, the soul his tutor. Hence the [4759]
historian tells us "that our soul directs, our body serves. The one we
have in common with the gods, the other with the beasts." So then
unless the vices of youth and boyhood are regulated by the wisdom of
the tutor, every effort and every impulse sets strongly in the
direction of wantonness. We might lose four of the senses and yet
live,--that is we could do without sight, hearing, smell, and the
pleasures of touch. But a human being cannot subsist without tasting
food. It follows that reason must be present, that we may take food of
such a kind and in such quantities as will not burden the body, or
hinder the free movement of the soul: for it is the way with us that
we eat, and walk, and sleep, and digest our food, and afterwards in
the fulness of blood have to bear the spur of lust. [4760] "Wine is a
mocker, strong drink a brawler." Whosoever has much to do with these
is not wise. And we should not take such food as is difficult of
digestion, or such as when eaten will give us reason to complain that
we got it and lost it with much effort. The preparation of vegetables,
fruit, and pulse is easy, and does not require the skill of expensive
cooks: our bodies are nourished by them with little trouble on our
part; and, if taken in moderation, such food is easier to digest, and
at less cost, because it does not stimulate the appetite, and
therefore is not devoured with avidity. No one has his stomach
inflated or overloaded if he eats only one or two dishes, and those
inexpensive ones: such a condition comes of pampering the taste with a
variety of meats. The smells of the kitchen may induce us to eat, but
when hunger is satisfied, they make us their slaves. Hence gorging
gives rise to disease: and many persons find relief for the discomfort
of gluttony in emetics,--what they disgraced themselves by putting in,
they with still greater disgrace put out.

11. [4761] Hippocrates in his Aphorisms teaches that stout persons of
a coarse habit of body, when once they have attained their full
growth, unless the plethora be quickly relieved by blood-letting,
develop tendencies to paralysis and the worst forms of disease: they
must therefore be bled, that there may be room for fresh growth. For
it is not the nature of our bodies to continue in one stay, but go on
either to increase or decrease, and no animal can live which is
incapable of growth. Whence [4762] Galen, a very learned man and the
commentator on Hippocrates, says in his exhortation to the practice of
medicine that athletes whose whole life and art consists in stuffing
cannot live long, nor be healthy: and that their souls enveloped with
superfluous blood and fat, and as it were covered with mud, have no
refined or heavenly thoughts, but are always intent upon gluttonous
and voracious feasting. Diogenes maintains that tyrants do not bring
about revolutions in cities, and foment wars civil or foreign for the
sake of a simple diet of vegetables and fruits, but for costly meats
and the delicacies of the table. And, strange to say, Epicurus, the
defender of pleasure, in all his books speaks of nothing but
vegetables and fruits; and he says that we ought to live on cheap food
because the preparation of sumptuous banquets of flesh involves great
care and suffering, and greater pains attend the search for such
delicacies than pleasures the consumption of them. Our bodies need
only something to eat and drink. Where there is bread and water, and
the like, nature is satisfied. Whatever more there may be does not go
to meet the wants of life, but are ministers to vicious pleasure.
Eating and drinking does not quench the longing for luxuries, but
appeases hunger and thirst. Persons who feed on flesh want also
gratifications not found in flesh. But they who adopt a simple diet do
not look for flesh. Further, we cannot devote ourselves to wisdom if
our thoughts are running on a well-laden table, the supply of which
requires an excess of work and anxiety. The wants of nature are soon
satisfied: cold and hunger can be banished with simple food and
clothing. Hence the Apostle says: "Having food and clothing let us be
therewith content." Delicacies and the various dishes of the feast are
the nurses of avarice. The soul greatly exults when you are content
with little: you have the world beneath your feet, and can exchange
all its power, its feasts, and its lusts, the objects for which men
rake money together, for common food, and make up for them all with a
sack-cloth shirt. Take away the luxurious feasting and the
gratification of lust, and no one will want riches to be used either
in the belly, or beneath it. The invalid only regains his health by
diminishing and carefully selecting his food, i.e., in medical phrase,
by adopting a "slender diet." The same food that recovers health, can
preserve it, for no one can imagine vegetables to be the cause of
disease. And if vegetables do not give the strength of Milo of
Crotona--a strength supplied and nourished by meat--what need has a
wise man and a Christian philosopher of such strength as is required
by athletes and soldiers, and which, if he had it, would only
stimulate to vice? Let those persons deem meat accordant with health
who wish to gratify their lust, and who, sunk in filthy pleasure, are
always at heat. What a Christian wants is health, but not superfluous
strength. And it ought not to disturb us if we find but few
supporters; for the pure and temperate are as rare as good and
faithful friends, and virtue is always scarce. Study the temperance of
[4763] Fabricius, or the poverty of [4764] Curius, and in a great city
you will find few worthy of your imitation. You need not fear that if
you do not eat flesh, fowlers and hunters will have learnt their craft
in vain.

12. We have read that some who suffered with disease of the joints and
with gouty humours recovered their health by proscribing delicacies,
and coming down to a simple board and mean food. For they were then
free from the worry of managing a house and from unlimited feasting.
Horace [4765] makes fun of the longing for food which when eaten
leaves nothing but regret.

"Scorn pleasure; she but hurts when bought with pain."

And when, in the delightful retirement of the country, by way of
satirizing voluptuous men, he described himself as plump and fat, his
sportive verse ran thus:

"Pay me a visit if you want to laugh,

You'll find me fat and sleek with well-dress'd hide,

Like any pig from Epicurus' sty."

But even if our food be the commonest, we must avoid repletion. For
nothing is so destructive to the mind as a full belly, fermenting like
a wine vat and giving forth its gases on all sides. What sort of
fasting is it, or what refreshment is there after fasting, when we are
blown out with yesterday's dinner, and our [4766] stomach is made a
factory for the closet? We wish to get credit for protracted
abstinence, and all the while we devour so much that a day and a night
can scarcely digest it. The proper name to give it is not fasting, but
rather debauch and rank indigestion.

13. [4767] Dicæarchus in his book of Antiquities, describing Greece,
relates that under Saturn, that is in the Golden Age, when the ground
brought forth all things abundantly, no one ate flesh, but every one
lived on field produce and fruits which the earth bore of itself.
Xenophon in eight books narrates the life of Cyrus, King of the
Persians, and asserts that they supported life on barley, cress, salt,
and black bread. Both the aforesaid Xenophon, Theophrastus, and almost
all the Greek writers testify to the frugal diet of the Spartans.
[4768] Chæremon the Stoic, a man of great eloquence, has a treatise on
the life of the ancient priests of Egypt, who, he says, laid aside all
worldly business and cares, and were ever in the temple, studying
nature and the regulating causes of the heavenly bodies; they never
had intercourse with women; they never from the time they began to
devote themselves to the divine service set eyes on their kindred and
relations, nor even saw their children; they always abstained from
flesh and wine, on account of the light-headedness and dizziness which
a small quantity of food caused, and especially to avoid the
stimulation of the lustful appetite engendered by this meat and drink.
They seldom ate bread, that they might not load the stomach. And
whenever they ate it, they mixed pounded hyssop with all that they
took, so that the action of its warmth might diminish the weight of
the heavier food. They used no oil except with vegetables, and then
only in small quantities, to mitigate the unpalatable taste. What
need, he says, to speak of birds, when they avoided even eggs and milk
as flesh. The one, they said, was liquid flesh, the other was blood
with the colour changed? Their bed was made of palm-leaves, called by
them baiæ: a sloping footstool laid upon the ground served for a
pillow, and they could go without food for two or three days. The
humours of the body which arise from sedentary habits were dried up by
reducing their diet to an extreme point.

14. [4769] Josephus in the second book of the history of the Jewish
captivity, and in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, and the two
treatises against Apion, describes three sects of the Jews, the
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. On the last of these he bestows
wondrous praise because they practised perpetual abstinence from
wives, wine, and flesh, and made a second nature of their daily fast.
[4770] Philo, too, a man of great learning, published a treatise of
his own on their mode of life. [4771] Neanthes of Cizycus, and [4772]
Asclepiades of Cyprus, at the time when Pygmalion ruled over the East,
relate that the eating of flesh was unknown. Eubulus, also, who wrote
the history of [4773] Mithras in many volumes, relates that among the
Persians there are three kinds of Magi, the first of whom, those of
greatest learning and eloquence, take no food except meal and
vegetables. At Eleusis it is customary to abstain from fowls and fish
and certain fruits. [4774] Bardesanes, a Babylonian, divides the
Gymnosophists of India into two classes, the one called Brahmans, the
other Samaneans, who are so rigidly self-restrained that they support
themselves either with the fruit of trees which grow on the banks of
the Ganges, or with common food of rice or flour, and when the king
visits them, he is wont to adore them, and thinks the peace of his
country depends upon their prayers. Euripides relates that the
prophets of Jupiter in Crete abstained not only from flesh, but also
from cooked food. [4775] Xenocrates the philosopher writes that at
Athens out of all the laws of [4776] Triptolemus only three precepts
remain in the temple of Ceres: respect to parents, reverence for the
gods, and abstinence from flesh. [4777] Orpheus in his song utterly
denounces the eating of flesh. I might speak of the frugality of
Pythagoras, Socrates, and [4778] Antisthenes to our confusion: but it
would be tedious, and would require a work to itself. At all events
this is the Antisthenes who, after teaching rhetoric with renown, on
hearing Socrates, is related to have said to his disciples, "Go, and
seek a master, for I have now found one." He immediately, sold what he
had, divided the proceeds among the people, and kept nothing for
himself but a small cloak. Of his poverty and toil Xenophon in the
Symposium is a witness, and so are his countless treatises, some
philosophical, some rhetorical. His most famous follower was the great
Diogenes, who was mightier than King Alexander in that he conquered
human nature. For Antisthenes would not take a single pupil, and when
he could not get rid of the persistent Diogenes he threatened him with
a stick if he did not depart. The latter is said to have laid down his
head and said, "No stick will be hard enough to prevent me from
following you." [4779] Satyrus, the biographer of illustrious men,
relates that Diogenes to guard himself against the cold, folded his
cloak double: his scrip was his pantry: and when aged he carried a
stick to support his feeble frame, and was commonly called "Old
Hand-to-mouth," because to that very hour he begged and received food
from any one. His home was the gateways and city arcades. And when he
wriggled into his tub, he would joke about his movable house that
adapted itself to the seasons. For when the weather was cold he used
to turn the mouth of the tub towards the south: in summer towards the
north; and whatever the direction of the sun might be, that way the
palace of Diogenes was turned. He had a wooden dish for drinking; but
on one occasion seeing a boy drinking with the hollow of his hand he
is related to have dashed the cup to the ground, saying that he did
not know nature provided a cup. His virtue and self-restraint were
proved even by his death. It is said that, now an old man, he was on
his way to the Olympic games, which used to be attended by a great
concourse of people from all parts of Greece, when he was overtaken by
fever and lay down upon the bank by the road-side. And when his
friends wished to place him on a beast or in a conveyance, he did not
assent, but crossing to the shade of a tree said, "Go your way, I pray
you, and see the games: this night will prove me either conquered or
conqueror. If I conquer the fever, I shall go to the games: if the
fever conquers me, I shall enter the unseen world." There through the
night he lay gasping for breath and did not, as we are told, so much
die as banish the fever by death. I have cited the example of only one
philosopher, so that our fine, erect, muscular athletes, who hardly
make a shadow of a footmark in their swift passage, whose words are in
their fists and their reasoning in their heels, who either know
nothing of apostolic poverty and the hardness of the cross, or despise
it, may at least imitate Gentile moderation.

15. So far I have dealt with the arguments and examples of
philosophers. Now I will pass on to the beginning of the human race,
that is, to the sphere which belongs to us. I will first point out
that Adam received a command in paradise to abstain from one tree
though he might eat the other fruit. The blessedness of paradise could
not be consecrated without abstinence from food. So long as he fasted,
he remained in paradise; he ate, and was cast out; he was no sooner
cast out than he married a wife. While he fasted in paradise he
continued a virgin: when he filled himself with food in the earth, he
bound himself with the tie of marriage. And yet though cast out he did
not immediately receive permission to eat flesh; but only the fruits
of trees and the produce of the crops, and herbs and vegetables were
given him for food, that even when an exile from paradise he might
feed not upon flesh which was not to be found in paradise, but upon
grain and fruit like that of paradise. But afterwards when [4780] God
saw that the heart of man from his youth was set on wickedness
continually, and that His Spirit could not remain in them because they
were flesh, He by the deluge passed sentence on the works of the
flesh, and, taking note of the extreme greediness of men, [4781] gave
them liberty to eat flesh: so that while understanding that all things
were lawful for them, they might not greatly desire that which was
allowed, lest they should turn a commandment into a cause of
transgression. And yet even then, fasting was in part commanded. For,
seeing that some animals are called clean, some unclean, and the
unclean animals were taken into Noah's ark by pairs, the clean in
uneven numbers (and of course the eating of the unclean was forbidden,
otherwise the term unclean would be unmeaning), fasting was in part
consecrated: restraint in the use of all was taught by the prohibition
of some. Why did Esau lose his birthright? Was it not on account of
food? and he could not atone with tears for the impatience of his
appetite. The people of Israel cast out from Egypt and on their way to
the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey, longed for
the flesh of Egypt, and the melons and garlic, saying: [4782] "Would
that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we
sat by the flesh pots." And again, [4783] "Who shall give us flesh to
eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt for nought; the
cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the
garlic: but now our soul is dried away: we have nought save this manna
to look to."

They despised angels' food, and sighed for the flesh of Egypt. Moses
for forty days and forty nights fasted on Mount Sinai, and showed even
then that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God.
He says to the Lord, "the people is full and maketh idols." Moses with
empty stomach received the law written with the finger of God. The
people that ate and drank and rose up to play fashioned a golden calf,
and preferred an Egyptian ox to the majesty of the Lord. The toil of
so many days perished through the fulness of a single hour. Moses
boldly broke the tables: for he knew that drunkards cannot hear the
word of God. [4784] "The beloved grew thick, waxed fat, and became
sleek: he kicked and forsook the Lord which made him, and departed
from the God of his salvation." Hence also it is enjoined in the same
Book of Deuteronomy: [4785] "Beware, lest when thou hast eaten and
drunk, and hast built goodly houses, and when thy herds and thy flocks
multiply, and thy silver and gold is multiplied, then thine heart be
lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God." In short the people ate
and their heart grew thick, lest they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart: so the people
well fed and fat-fleshed could not bear the countenance of Moses who
fasted, for, to correctly render the Hebrew, it was [4786] furnished
with horns through his converse with God. And it was not, as some
think, to show that there is no difference between virginity and
marriage, but to assert his sympathy with severe fasting, that our
Lord and Saviour when he was transfigured on the Mount revealed Moses
and Elias with Himself in glory. Although Moses and Elias were
properly types of the Law and the Prophets, as is clearly witnessed by
the Gospel: [4787] "They spake of his departure which he was about to
accomplish at Jerusalem." For the passion of our Lord is declared not
by virginity or marriage, but by the Law and the Prophets. If,
however, any persons contentiously maintain that by Moses is signified
marriage, by Elias virginity, let me tell them briefly that Moses died
and was buried, but Elias was carried off in a chariot of fire and
entered on immortality before he approached death. But the second
writing of the tables could not be effected without fasting. What was
lost by drunkenness was regained by abstinence, a proof that by
fasting we can return to paradise, whence, though fulness, we have
been expelled. In [4788] Exodus we read that the battle was fought
against Amalek while Moses prayed, and the whole people fasted until
the evening. [4789] Joshua, the son of Nun, bade sun and moon stand
still, and the victorious army prolonged its fast for more than a day.
[4790] Saul, as it is written in the first book of Kings, pronounced a
curse on him who ate bread before the evening, and until he had
avenged himself upon his enemies. So none of his people tasted any
food. And all they of the land took food. And so binding was a solemn
fast once it was proclaimed to the Lord, that Jonathan, to whom the
victory was due, was taken by lot, and [4791] could not escape the
charge of sinning in ignorance, and his father's hand was raised
against him, and the prayers of the people scarce availed to save him.
[4792] Elijah after the preparation of a forty days fast saw God on
Mount Horeb, and heard from Him the words, "What doest thou here,
Elijah?" There is much more familiarity in this than in the "Where art
thou, Adam?" of Genesis. The latter was intended to excite the fears
of one who had fed and was lost; the former was affectionately
addressed to a fasting servant. [4793] When the people were assembled
in Mizpeh, Samuel proclaimed a fast, and so strengthened them, and
thus made them prevail against the enemy. [4794] The attack of the
Assyrians was repulsed, and the might of Sennacherib utterly crushed,
by the tears and sackcloth of King Hezekiah, and by his humbling
himself with fasting. So also the city of Nineveh by fasting excited
compassion and turned aside the threatening wrath of the Lord. And
[4795] Sodom and Gomorrha might have appeased it, had they been
willing to repent, and through the aid of fasting gain for themselves
tears of repentance. [4796] Ahab, the most impious of kings, by
fasting and wearing sackcloth, succeeded in escaping the sentence of
God, and in deferring the overthrow of his house to the days of his
posterity. [4797] Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, by fasting won the gift
of a son. [4798] At Babylon the magicians came into peril, every
interpreter of dreams, soothsayer, and diviner was slain. Daniel and
the three youths gained a good report by fasting, and although they
were fed on pulse, they were fairer and wiser than they who ate the
flesh from the king's table. Then it is written that Daniel fasted for
three weeks; he ate no pleasant bread; flesh and wine entered not his
mouth; he was not anointed with oil; and the angel came to him saying,
[4799] "Daniel, thou art worthy of compassion." He who in the eyes of
God was worthy of compassion, afterwards was an object of terror to
the lions in their den. How fair a thing is that which propitiates
God, tames lions, terrifies demons! Habakkuk (although we do not find
this in the Hebrew Scriptures [4800] ) was sent to him with the
reaper's meal, for by a week's abstinence he had merited so
distinguished a server. David, when his son was in danger after his
adultery, made confession in ashes and with fasting. [4801] He tells
us that he ate ashes like bread, and mingled his drink with weeping.
[4802] And that his knees became weak through fasting. Yet he had
certainly heard from Nathan the words, [4803] "The Lord also hath put
away thy sin." Samson and Samuel drank neither wine nor strong drink,
for they were children of promise, and conceived in abstinence and
fasting. [4804] Aaron and the other priests when about to enter the
temple, refrained from all intoxicating drink for fear they should
die. Whence we learn that they die who minister in the Church without
sobriety. And hence it is a reproach against Israel: [4805] "Ye gave
my Nazarites wine to drink." Jonadab, the son of Rechab, commanded his
sons to drink no wine for ever. And when Jeremiah offered them wine to
drink, and they of their own accord refused it, the Lord spake by the
prophet, saying: [4806] "Because ye have obeyed the commandment of
Jonadab your father, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to
stand before me for ever." On the [4807] threshold of the Gospel
appears Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, the wife of one husband, and a
woman who was always fasting. Long-continued chastity and persistent
fasting welcomed a Virgin Lord. His forerunner and herald, John, fed
on locusts and wild honey, not on flesh; and the hermits of the desert
and the monks in their cells, at first used the same sustenance. But
the Lord Himself consecrated His baptism by a forty days' fast, and He
taught us that the more violent devils [4808] cannot be overcome,
except by prayer and fasting. [4809] Cornelius the centurion was found
worthy through alms-giving and frequent fasts to receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit before baptism. [4810] The Apostle Paul, after
speaking of hunger and thirst, and his other labours, perils from
robbers, shipwrecks, loneliness, enumerates frequent fasts. And he
[4811] advises his disciple Timothy, who had a weak stomach, and was
subject to many infirmities, to drink wine in moderation: "Drink no
longer water," he says. The fact that he bids him no longer drink
water shows that he had previously drunk water. The apostle would not
have allowed this had not frequent infirmities and bodily pain
demanded the concession.

16. The Apostle does indeed [4812] blame those who forbade marriage,
and commanded to abstain from food, which God created for use with
thanksgiving. But he has in view Marcion, and Tatian, and other
heretics, who inculcate perpetual abstinence, to destroy, and express
their hatred and contempt for, the works of the Creator. But we praise
every creature of God, and yet prefer leanness to corpulence,
abstinence to luxury, fasting to fulness. [4813] "He that laboureth
laboureth for himself, and he is eager to his own destruction." And,
[4814] "From the days of John the Baptist (who fasted and was a
virgin) until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of
violence take it by force." For we are afraid lest at the coming of
the eternal judge we be caught, as in the days of the flood, and at
the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha, eating and drinking, and
marrying, and giving in marriage. For both the flood and the fire from
heaven found fulness as well as marriage ready for destruction. Nor
need we wonder if the Apostle commands that everything sold in the
market be bought and eaten, since with idolaters, and with those who
still ate in the temples of the idols meats offered to idols as such,
it passed for the highest abstinence to abstain only from food eaten
by the Gentiles. And if he says to the Romans: [4815] "Let not him
that eateth set at nought him that eateth not: and let not him that
eateth not judge him that eateth," he does not make fasting and
fulness of equal merit, but he is speaking against those believers in
Christ who were still judaizing: and he warns Gentile believers, not
to offend those by their food who were still too weak in faith. In
brief this is clear enough in the sequel: [4816] "I know and am
persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: save
that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is
unclean. For if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest
no longer in love. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died.
Let not then your good be evil spoken of: for the Kingdom of God is
not eating and drinking." And that no one may suppose he is referring
to fasting and not to Jewish superstition, he immediately explains,
[4817] "One man hath faith to eat all things: but he that is weak
eateth herbs." And again, [4818] "One man esteemeth one day above
another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully
assured in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto
the Lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God
thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the Lord he eateth not, and
giveth God thanks." For they who were still weak in faith and thought
some meats clean, some unclean: and supposed there was a difference
between one day and another, for example, that the Sabbath, and the
New Moons, and the Feast of Tabernacles were holier than other days,
were commanded to eat herbs which are indifferently partaken of by
all. But such as were of stronger faith believed all meats and all
days to be alike.

17. My opponent has dared to maintain that our Lord was called by the
Pharisees a wine-bibber and a glutton: and from the fact of His going
to marriage feasts and from His not despising the banquets of sinners,
I am to infer His wishes respecting ourselves. That Lord, so you
suppose, is a glutton who fasted forty days to hallow Christian
fasting; [4819] who calls them blessed that hunger and thirst; [4820]
who says that He has food, not that which the disciples surmised, but
such as would not perish for ever; [4821] who forbids us to think of
the morrow; who, though He is said to have hungered and thirsted, and
to have gone frequently to various meals, except in celebrating the
mystery whereby He represented His passion, or [4822] in proving the
reality of His body is nowhere described as ministering to His
appetite; [4823] who tells of purple-clad Dives in hell for his
feasting, and says that poor Lazarus for his abstinence was in
Abraham's bosom; who, when we fast, [4824] bids us anoint our head and
wash our face, that we fast not to gain glory from men, but praise
from the Lord; who did indeed [4825] after His resurrection eat part
of a broiled fish and of a honey-comb, not to allay hunger and to
gratify His palate, but to show the reality of His own body. For
whenever He raised anyone from the dead He [4826] ordered that food
should be given him to eat, lest the resurrection should be thought a
delusion. And this is why Lazarus after his resurrection is [4827]
described as being at the feast with our Lord. We do not deny that
fish and other kinds of flesh, if we choose, may be taken as food; but
as we prefer virginity to marriage, so do we esteem fasting and
spirituality above meats and full-bloodedness. And if Peter [4828]
before dinner went to the supper chamber at the sixth hour, a chance
fit of hunger does not prejudice fasting. For, if this were so,
because our Lord [4829] at the sixth hour sat weary on the well of
Samaria and wished to drink, all must of necessity, whether they so
desire or not, drink at that time. Possibly it was the Sabbath, or the
Lord's day, and he hungered at the sixth hour after two or three days'
fasting; for I could never believe that the Apostle, if he had eaten a
dinner only one day previous and had been blown out with a great meal,
would have been hungry by noon next day. But if he did dine the day
previous, and was hungry next day before luncheon, I do not think that
a man who was so soon hungry ate until he was satisfied. Again, God by
the mouth of Isaiah says what fast He did not choose: [4830] "In the
day of your fast ye find pleasure, and afflict the lowly: ye fast for
strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. It is not
such a fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord." What kind He has
chosen He thus teaches: "Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the
houseless poor into thy house. When thou seest the naked cover him,
and hide not thyself from thine own flesh." He did not therefore
reject fasting, but showed what He would have it to be: for that
bodily hunger is not pleasing to God which is made null and void by
strife, and plunder, and lust. If God does not desire fasting, how is
it that in [4831] Leviticus He commands the whole people in the
seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, to fast until the
evening, and threatens that he who does not afflict his soul shall die
and be cut off from his people? How is it that the [4832] graves of
lust where the people fell in their devotion to flesh remain even to
this day in the wilderness? Do we not read that the stupid people
gorged themselves with quails until the wrath of God came upon them?
Why was the man of God at whose prophecy the hand of King Jeroboam
withered, and who ate contrary to the command of God, [4833]
immediately smitten? Strange that the lion which left the ass safe and
sound should not spare the prophet just risen from his meal! He who,
while he was fasting, had wrought miracles, no sooner ate a meal than
he paid the penalty for the gratification. Joel also cries aloud:
[4834] "Sanctify a fast, proclaim a time of healing," that it might
appear that a fast is sanctified by other works, and that a holy fast
avails for the cure of sin. Moreover, just as true virginity is not
prejudiced by the counterfeit professions of the virgins of the devil,
so neither is true fasting by the periodic fast and perpetual
abstinence from certain kinds of food on the part of the worshippers
of Isis and Cybele, particularly when a fast from bread is made up for
by feasting on flesh. And just as the signs of Moses were imitated by
the signs of the Egyptians which were in reality no signs at all, for
the rod of Moses swallowed up the rods of the magicians: so when the
devil tries to be the rival of God this does not prove that our
religion is superstitious, but that we are negligent, since we refuse
to do what even men of the world see clearly to be good.

18. His fourth and last contention is that there are two classes, the
sheep and the goats, the just and the unjust: that the just stand on
the right hand, the other on the left: and that to the just the words
are spoken: [4835] "Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But that
sinners are thus addressed: [4836] "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." That
a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, nor an evil tree good
fruit. Hence it is that the Saviour says to the Jews: [4837] "Ye are
of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will
to do." He quotes the parable of the ten virgins, the wise and the
foolish, and shows that the five who had no oil remained outside, but
that the other five who had gotten for themselves the light of good
works went into the marriage with the bridegroom. He goes back to the
flood, and tells us that they who were righteous like Noah were saved,
but that the sinners perished all together. We are informed that among
the men of Sodom and Gomorrha no difference is made except between the
two classes of the good and the bad. The righteous are delivered, the
sinners are consumed by the same fire. There is one salvation for
those who are released, one destruction for those who stay behind.
Lot's wife is a clear warning that we must not deviate a hair's
breadth from right. If, however, he says, you object and ask me why
the righteous toils in time of peace, or in the midst of persecution,
if he is to gain nothing nor have a greater reward, I would assert
that he does this, not that he may gain a further reward but that he
may not lose what he has already received. In Egypt also the ten
plagues fell with equal violence upon all that sinned, and the same
darkness hung over master and slave, noble and ignoble, the king and
the people. Again at the Red Sea the righteous all passed over, the
sinners were all overwhelmed. Six hundred thousand men, besides those
who were unfit for war through age or sex, all alike fell in the
desert, and two who were alike in righteousness are alike delivered.
For forty years all Israel toiled and died alike. As regards food, an
homer of manna was the measure for all ages: the clothes of all alike
did not wear out: the hair of all alike did not grow, nor the beard
increase: the shoes of all lasted the same time. Their feet grew not
hard: the food in the mouths of all had the same taste. They went on
their way to one resting place with equal toil and equal reward. All
Hebrews had the same Passover, the same Feast of Tabernacles, the same
Sabbath, the same New Moons. In the seventh, the Sabbatical Year, all
prisoners were released without distinction of persons, and in the
year of Jubilee all debts were forgiven to all debtors, and he who had
sold land returned to the inheritance of his fathers.

19. Then, again, as regards the parable of the sower in the Gospel, we
read that the good ground brought forth fruit, some a hundred fold,
some sixty fold, and some thirty fold; and, on the other hand, that
the bad ground admitted of three degrees of sterility: but Jovinianus
makes only two classes, the good soil and the bad. [4838] And as in
one Gospel our Lord promises the Apostles a hundred fold, in another
seven fold, for leaving children and wives, and in the world to come
life eternal; and the seven and the hundred mean the same thing: so,
too, in the passage before us, the numbers describing the fertility of
the soil need not create any difficulty, particularly when the
Evangelist Mark gives the inverse order, thirty, sixty, and a hundred.
The Lord says, [4839] "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
abideth in me, and I in him." As, then, there are not varying degrees
of Christ's presence in us, so neither are there degrees of our
abiding in Christ. [4840] "Every one that loveth me will keep my word:
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him." He that is righteous, loves Christ: and if a man thus
loves, the Father and the Son come to him, and make their abode with
him. Now I suppose that when the guest is such as this the host cannot
possibly lack anything. And if our Lord says, [4841] "In my Father's
house are many mansions," His meaning is not that there are different
mansions in the kingdom of heaven, but He indicates the number of
Churches in the whole world, for though the Church be seven-fold she
is but one. "I go," He says, "to prepare a place for you," not places.
If this promise is peculiar to the twelve apostles, then Paul is shut
out from that place, and the chosen vessel will be thought superfluous
and unworthy. John and James, because they asked more than the others,
did not obtain it; and yet their dignity is not diminished, because
they were equal to the rest of the apostles. [4842] "Know ye not that
your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost?" A temple, He says, not
temples, in order to show that God dwells in all alike. [4843]
"Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on
me through their word; as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, are one,
so they may be all one in us. And the glory which thou hast given me I
have given unto them. I have loved them, as thou hast loved me. And as
we are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, so may they be one people
in themselves, that is, like dear children, partakers of the divine
nature." Call the Church what you will, bride, sister, mother, her
assembly is but one and never lacks husband, brother, or son. Her
faith is one, and she is not defiled by variety of doctrine, nor
divided by heresies. She continues a virgin. Whithersoever the Lamb
goeth, she follows Him: she alone knows the Song of Christ.

20. "If you tell me," says he, "that one star differeth from another
star in glory, I reply, that one star does differ from another star;
that is, spiritual persons differ from carnal. We love all the members
alike, and do not prefer the eye to the finger, nor the finger to the
ear: but the loss of any one is attended by the sorrow of all the
rest. We all alike come into this world, and we all alike depart from
it. There is one Adam of the earth, and another from heaven. The
earthly Adam is on the left hand, and will perish: the heavenly Adam
is on the right hand, and will be saved. He who says to his brother,
`thou fool,' and `raca,' will be in danger of Gehenna. And the
murderer and the adulterer will likewise be sent into Gehenna. In
times of persecution some are burnt, some strangled, some beheaded,
some flee, or die within the walls of a prison: the struggle varies in
kind, but the victors' crown is one. No difference was made between
the son who had never left his father, and his brother who was
welcomed as a returning penitent. To the labourers of the first hour,
the third, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh, the same reward of
a penny was given, and what may perhaps seem still more strange to
you, the first to receive the reward were they who had toiled least in
the vineyard."

21. Who is there even of God's elect that would not be disturbed at
these and similar passages of Holy Scripture which our crafty
opponent, with a perverse ingenuity, twists to the support of his own
views? The Apostle John says that many Antichrists had come, and to
make no difference between John himself and the lowest penitent is the
preaching of a real Antichrist. At the same time, I am amazed at the
portentous forms which Jovinianus, as slippery as a snake and like
another Proteus, so rapidly assumes. In sexual intercourse and full
feeding he is an Epicurean; in the distribution of rewards and
punishments he all at once becomes a Stoic, He exchanges Jerusalem for
[4844] Citium, Judæa for Cyprus, Christ for Zeno. If we may not depart
a hair's breadth from virtue, and all sins are equal, and a man who in
a fit of hunger steals a piece of bread is no less guilty than he who
slays a man: you must, in your turn, be held guilty of the greatest
crimes. The case is different if you say that you have no sin, not
even the least, and if, although all apostles and prophets and all the
saints (as I have maintained in dealing with [4845] his second
proposition) bewail their sinfulness, you alone boast of your
righteousness. But a minute ago you were barefooted: now you not only
wear shoes, but decorated ones. Just now you wore a rough coat and a
dirty shirt, you were grimy, and haggard, and your hand was horny with
toil: now you are clad in linen and silks, and strut like an exquisite
in the fashions of the Atrebates and the Laodiceans. Your cheeks are
ruddy, your skin sleek, your hair smoothed down in front and behind,
your belly protrudes, your shoulders are little mountains, your neck
full and so loaded with fat that the half-smothered words can scarce
make their escape. Surely in such extremes of dress and mode of life
there must be sin on the one side or the other. I will not assert that
the sin lies in the food or clothing, but that such fickleness and
changing for the worse is almost censurable in itself. And what we
censure, is far removed from virtue; and what is far from virtue
becomes the property of vice; and what is proved to be vicious is one
with sin. Now sin, according to you, is placed on the left hand, and
corresponds to the goats. You must, therefore, return to your old
habits if you are to be a sheep on the right hand; or, if you
perversely repent of your former views and change them for others,
whether you like it or not, and although you shave off your beard, you
will be reckoned among the goats.

22. But what is the good of calling a [4846] one-eyed man Old One-eye,
and of showing the inconsistency of an assailant, when we have to
refute a whole series of statements? That the sheep and the goats on
the right hand and on the left are the two classes of the righteous
and the wicked, I do not deny. That a good tree does not bring forth
evil fruit, nor an evil one good fruit, no one doubts. The ten virgins
also, wise and foolish, we divide into good and bad. We are not
ignorant that at the deluge the righteous were delivered, and sinners
overwhelmed with the waters. That at Sodom and Gomorrha the just man
was rescued, while the sinners were consumed by fire, is clear to
everyone. We are also aware that Egypt was stricken with the ten
plagues, and that Israel was saved. Even little children in our
schools sing how the righteous passed through the Red Sea, and Pharaoh
with his host was drowned. That six hundred thousand fell in the
desert because they were unbelieving, and that two only entered the
land of promise, is taught by Scripture; and so is the rest of your
description of the two classes, good and bad, down to the labourers in
the vineyard. But what are we to think of your assertion, that because
there is a division into good and bad, the good, or the bad it may be,
are not distinguished one from another, and that it makes no
difference whether one is a ram in the flock or a poor little sheep?
whether the sheep have the first or the second fleece? whether the
flock is diseased and covered with the scab, or full of life and
vigour? [4847] especially when by the authoritative utterances of His
own prophet Ezekiel God clearly points out the difference between
flock and flock of His rational sheep, saying, "Behold I judge between
cattle and cattle, and between the rams and the he-goats, and between
the fat cattle and the lean. Because ye have thrust with side and with
shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, until they were
scattered abroad." And that we might know what the cattle were, He
immediately added: [4848] "Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are
men." Will Paul and that penitent who had lain with his father's wife
be on an equality, because the latter repented and was received into
the Church: and shall the offender because he is with him on the right
hand shine with the same glory as the Apostle? How is it then that
tares and wheat grow side by side in the same field until the harvest,
that is the end of the world? What is the significance of good and bad
fish being contained in the Gospel net? Why, in Noah's ark, the type
of the Church, are there different animals with different abodes
according to their rank? Why standeth the queen upon the Lord's right
hand, in raiment of wrought gold, in a vesture of gold? Why had
Joseph, representing Christ, a coat of many colours? Why does the
Apostle say to the Romans: [4849] "According as God had dealt to each
man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body,
and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are
one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having
gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether
prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or
ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth,
to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that
giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with
diligence," and so on. And elsewhere: [4850] "One man esteemeth one
day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be
fully persuaded in his own mind." To the Corinthians he says: [4851]
"I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase. So then,
neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but
God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according
to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God, ye are
God's husbandry, ye are God's building." And again elsewhere: [4852]
"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise
master-builder I laid a foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But
let each man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation
can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if
any man buildeth on the foundation, gold, silver, costly stones, wood,
hay, stubble: each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day
shall reveal it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself
shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work
shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any
man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall
be saved; yet so as through fire." If the man whose work is burnt and
is to suffer the loss of his labour, while he himself is saved, yet
not without proof of fire: it follows that if a man's work remains
which he has built upon the foundation, he will be saved without
probation by fire, and consequently a difference is established
between one degree of salvation and another. Again in another place he
says: [4853] "Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ,
and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is required
in stewards, that a man be found faithful." Would you be assured that
between one steward and another there is a great difference (I am not
speaking of bad and good, but of the good themselves who stand on the
right hand)? then listen to the sequel: [4854] "Know ye not that they
which minister about the sacrifices, eat of the sacrifices, and they
which wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so
did the Lord ordain that they which proclaim the gospel should live of
the gospel. But I have used none of these things: and I wrote not
these things that it may be so done in my case: for it were good for
me rather to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. For
if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is
laid upon me; for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I
do this of mine own will, I have a reward: but if not of mine own
will, I have a steward-ship intrusted to me. What then is my reward?
That, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel without charge,
so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel. For though I was
free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might
gain the more." You surely cannot say that men commit sin by living by
the Gospel, and partaking of the sacrifices. Of course not. The Lord
himself made the rule that they who preach the Gospel, should live by
the Gospel. But an Apostle who does not abuse this freedom, but
labours with his hands that he may not be a burden to anyone, and
toils night and day and ministers to his companions of course does
this, that for his greater toil he may receive a greater reward.

23. Let us hasten to what remains. [4855] "There are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of
ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of
operations, but the same God who worketh all things in all. But to
each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal."
And again: [4856] "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all
the members of the body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ."
But he precludes you from saying that the different members of the one
body have the same rank; for he immediately describes the orders of
the Church, and says: [4857] "And God hath set some in the Church,
first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then miracles,
then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers
of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do
all interpret? But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still
more excellent way shew I unto you." And after discoursing more in
detail of the graces of charity, he added: [4858] "Whether there be
prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they
shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we
know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." And
afterwards we read: [4859] "But now abideth faith, hope, love, these
three; and the greatest of these is love. Follow after love; yet
desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy."
And again: [4860] "I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather
that ye should prophesy: and greater is he that prophesieth than he
that speaketh with tongues." And again: [4861] "I thank God, I speak
with tongues more than you all." Where there are different gifts, and
one man is greater, another less, and all are called spiritual, they
are all certainly sheep, and they stand on the right hand; but there
is a difference between one sheep and another. It is humility that
leads the Apostle Paul to say: [4862] "I am the least of the apostles,
that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace
which was bestowed upon me was not found vain: but I laboured more
abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was
with me." But the very fact of his thus humbling himself shows the
possibility of there being apostles of higher or lower rank, and God
is not unjust that He will forget the work of him who is called the
chosen vessel of election, and who laboured more abundantly than they
all, or assign equal rewards to unequal deserts. Afterwards we read,
[4863] "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be now alive.
But each in his own order." If each is to rise in his own order, it
follows that those who rise are of different degrees of merit. [4864]
"All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one flesh of men, and
another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of
fishes. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but
the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is
another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another
star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." Like a
learned commentator, you have explained this passage by saying that
the spiritual differ from the carnal. It follows that in heaven there
will be both spiritual and carnal persons, and not only will the sheep
climb thither, but your goats also. "One star," he says, "differeth
from another star in glory": this is not the distinction of sheep and
goat, but of sheep and sheep, star and star. Lastly, he says, "there
is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon." But for this,
you might maintain that the phrase one star from another star covers
the whole human race; but he introduces the sun and moon, and you
cannot possibly reckon them among the goats. "So," says he, "is also
the resurrection of the dead"--the just will shine with the brightness
of the sun, and those of the next rank will glow with the splendour of
the moon, so that one will be a Lucifer, another an Arcturus, a third
an Orion, another Mazzaroth, or some other of the stars whose names
are hollowed in the book of Job. [4865] [4866] "For we all," he says,
"must be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each
one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath
done, whether it be good or bad." And you cannot say that the mode of
our manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ is such that the
good receive good things, the bad evil things; for he [4867] teaches
us in the same epistle that he who soweth sparingly shall reap also
sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Surely he who sows more and he who sows less are both on the right
side. And although they belong to the same class, that of the sower,
yet they differ in respect of measure and number. The same Paul,
writing to the Ephesians, says: [4868] "to the intent that now unto
the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made
known through the church the manifold wisdom of God." You observe that
it is a varied and manifold wisdom of God which is spoken of as
existing in the different ranks of the church. And in the same epistle
we read, [4869] "Unto each one of us was the grace given according to
the measure of the grace of Christ": not that Christ's measure varies,
but only that so much of His grace is poured out as we can receive.

24. In vain, therefore, do you multiply instances of sheep and goats,
of the five wise and five foolish virgins, of Egyptians and
Israelites, and so forth, because retribution is not in the present,
but will be in the future. Hence we find that the day of judgment is
promised at the end of all things, because the judgment is not now.
For it would be absurd to call the last day the day of judgment, if
God were judging at the present time. Now we sail the ship, wrestle,
and fight, that at last we may reach the haven, be crowned, and
triumph. But you, with no less adroitness than perversity, make the
life of this world illustrate that of the world to come, although we
know full well that here unrighteousness prevails, there,
righteousness: [4870] "until we go into the sanctuary of God, and
understand the end of those men." The saint does not die one way, the
sinner another. Those who sail the same sea have the same calm and
storm. A violent death is not one thing to the robber, another to the
martyr. Children are not born one way of adultery and prostitution, in
another of pure marriage. Certainly our Lord and the robbers incurred
the same penalty of crucifixion. If the judgment of this world and of
that which is to come be the same, it follows that they who were here
crucified side by side, will also be esteemed of equal rank hereafter.
Paul and they who bound him, sailed together, endured the same storm,
escaped together to the shore when the ship was broken with the waves.
You cannot deny that the prisoner and the keepers were of unequal
merit. And what were the circumstances of that same shipwreck of the
Apostle and the soldiers? The Apostle Paul afterwards [4871] related a
vision, and said that they who were with him in the ship had been
given to him by the Lord. Are we to suppose that he to whom they were
given, and they who were given to him, were of one degree of merit?
Ten righteous men can save a sinful city. Lot together with his
daughters was delivered from the fire: his sons-in-law would also have
been saved, had they been willing to leave the city. Now there was
surely a great difference between Lot and his sons-in-law. One city
out of the five, [4872] Zoar, was saved, and a place which lay under
the same sentence as Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah, and Zeboiim, was
preserved by the prayers of a holy man. Lot and Zoar were of different
merit, but both of them escaped the fire. [4873] The robbers who in
the absence of David had laid waste Ziklag, and made a prey of the
wives and children of the inhabitants were slain on the third day in
the plain, but forty men mounted on camels fled. Will you maintain
that there was some difference between those who were slain and those
who made good their escape? We read in the [4874] Gospel that the
tower of Siloam fell upon eighteen men who perished in the ruins.
Certainly our Saviour did not regard them as the only sinners: but
they were punished to terrify the rest: it was like scourging a
pestilent fellow to teach fools wisdom. If all sinners are punished
alike, it is unjust for one to be slain while another is admonished by
his comrade's death.

25. You raise the objection that all Israelites had the same measure
of manna, an homer, and were alike in respect of dress, and hair, and
beard, and shoes; as though we did not all alike partake of the body
of Christ. In the Christian mysteries there is one means of
sanctification for the master and the servant, the noble and the
low-born, for the king and his soldiers, and yet, that which is one
varies according to the merits of those who receive it. [4875]
"Whosoever shall eat or drink unworthily shall be guilty of the body
and blood of the Lord." Does it follow that because Judas drank of the
same cup as the rest of the apostles, that he and they are of equal
merit? But suppose that we do not choose to receive the sacrament, at
all events we all have the same life, breathe the same air, have the
same blood in our veins, are fed on the same food. Moreover, if our
viands are improved by culinary skill and are made more palatable for
the consumer, food of this kind does not satisfy nature, but tickles
the appetite. We are all alike subject to hunger, all alike suffer
with cold: we alike are shrivelled with the frost, or melted with the
broiling heat. The sun and the moon, and all the company of the stars,
the showers, the whole world run their course for us all alike, and,
as the Gospel tells us, the same refreshing rain falls upon all, good
and bad, just and unjust. If the present is a picture of the future,
then the Sun of Righteousness will rise upon sinners as well as upon
the righteous, upon the wicked and the holy, upon the heathen as well
as upon Jews and Christians, though the Scripture says, [4876] "Unto
you that fear the Lord shall the Sun of Righteousness arise." If He
will rise to those that fear, He will set to the despisers and the
false prophets. The sheep which stand on the right hand will be
brought into the kingdom of heaven, the goats will be thrust down to
hell. The parable does not contrast the sheep one with another, or on
the other hand the goats, but merely makes a difference between sheep
and goats. The whole truth is not taught in a single passage: we must
always bear in mind the exact point of an illustration. For instance,
the ten virgins are not examples of the whole human race, but of the
careful and the slothful: the former are ever anticipating the advent
of our Lord, the latter abandon themselves to idle slumber without a
thought of future judgment. And so at the end of the parable it is
said, [4877] "Watch, for ye know not the day, nor the hour." If at the
deluge Noah was delivered, and the whole world perished, all men were
flesh, and therefore were destroyed. You must either say that the sons
of Noah and Noah for whose sake they were delivered were of unequal
merit, or you must place the accursed Ham in the same rank as his
father because he was delivered with him from the flood. At the
passion of Christ all wavered, all were unprofitable together: there
was none that did good, no not one. Will you therefore dare to say
that Peter and the rest of the Apostles who fled denied the Saviour in
the same sense as Caiaphas and the Pharisees and the people who cried
out, [4878] "Crucify him, crucify him"? And, to say no more about the
Apostles, do you think Annas and Caiaphas, and Judas the traitor
guilty of no greater crime than Pilate who was compelled against his
will to give sentence against our Lord? The guilt of Judas is
proportioned to his former merit, and the greater the guilt, the
greater the penalty too. [4879] "For the mighty shall mightily suffer
torment." An evil tree does not bear good fruit, nor a good tree evil
fruit. If this be so, tell me how it was that Paul though he was an
evil tree and persecuted the Church of Christ, afterwards bore good
fruit? And Judas, though he was a good tree and wrought miracles like
the other Apostles, afterwards turned traitor and brought forth evil
fruit? The truth is that a good tree does not bear evil fruit, nor an
evil tree good fruit, so long as they continue in their goodness, or
badness. And if we read that every Hebrew keeps the same Passover, and
that in [4880] the seventh year every prisoner is set free, and that
at Jubilee, that is the fiftieth year, [4881] every possession returns
to its owner, all this refers not to the present, but to the future;
for being in bondage during the six days of this world, on the seventh
day, the true and eternal Sabbath, we shall be free, at any rate if we
wish to be free while still in bondage in the world. If, however, we
do not desire it, our ear will be bored in token of our disobedience,
and together with our wives and children, whom we preferred to
liberty, that is, with the flesh and its works, we shall be in
perpetual slavery.

26. As for the parable of the sower which makes both good and bad
ground bear a triple crop, and the passage from the apostle in which
upon Christ as the foundation one man builds gold, silver, costly
stones, another wood, hay, stubble, the meaning is perfectly clear. We
know that in a great house there are different vessels, and to wish to
contradict so plain a truth would be sheer impudence. Yet that
Jovinianus may not triumph in a lie and quote the instance of the
apostles by way of discrediting the hundred fold, sixty fold, and
thirty fold, let me inform him that in [4882] Matthew and Mark a
hundred fold is promised to the apostles who had left all. And I would
tell him further, that in the Gospel of Luke we find much more, that
is polu pleiona, and that there is absolutely no instance in the
Gospels of a hundred standing for seven; and that he is convicted
either of forgery, or of ignorance; and that our cause is not
prejudiced by the fact that in one Gospel the enumeration begins at a
hundred, in another at thirty, since it is a rule with all Scripture,
and especially with the older writings, to put the lowest number first
and so ascend by degrees to the higher. For instance, suppose one to
say that so-and-so lived five and seventy and a hundred years, it does
not follow that five and seventy are more than a hundred because they
were first mentioned. If you do not on the side of good admit the
difference between a hundred, sixty, and thirty, neither will you do
so on the side of evil, and the seed which fell by the wayside, upon
the rock, and among thorns, will be equally faulty. But if the former
three, or the latter three, on the side of good, or on the side of
evil respectively, are one and the same, it was foolish instead of
speaking of two things to enumerate six kinds, and all the more
because according to the account of the parable in Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, the Saviour always added: "He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear." Where there is no deep inner meaning, it is useless to draw our
attention to the mystic sense.

27. You give it as your opinion that, since the Father and the Son
make their abode with the faithful, and since Christ is their guest,
nothing is lacking. I suppose, however, that Christ's abiding with the
Corinthians was one thing, with the Ephesians another: it was one
thing, I say, for Him to abide with those whom Paul blamed for many
sins, another for Him to dwell with those to whom the apostle revealed
mysteries hidden from the beginning of the world; one thing for Him to
be in Titus and Timothy, another in Paul. Certainly amongst them that
have been born of women, there has not arisen a greater than John the
Baptist. But the term greater implies others who are less. And [4883]
"he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." You see
then that in heaven one is greatest and another is least, and that
among the angels and the invisible creation there is a manifold and
infinite diversity. Why do the apostles say: [4884] "Lord, increase
our faith," if there is one measure for all? And why did our Lord
rebuke His disciple, saying: [4885] "O thou of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt?" In Jeremiah also we read concerning the future
kingdom: [4886] "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers."
And so on after: [4887] "I will put my law in their inward parts, and
in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God and they shall
be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them." The
context of this passage clearly shows that the prophet is describing
the future kingdom, and how can there possibly be in it a least or
greatest, if all are to be equal? The secret is disclosed in the
Gospel: [4888] "Whosoever shall do and teach, he shall be called great
in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall teach, and not do, shall
be least." [4889] The Saviour taught us at a feast to take the lowest
place, lest, when one greater than us came, we should be thrust with
disgrace from the higher place. If we cannot fall, but only raise
ourselves by penitence, what is the meaning of the ladder at Bethel,
on which the angels come from heaven to earth and descend as well as
ascend? Surely while on that ladder they are reckoned among the sheep
and stand on the right hand. There are angels who descend from heaven;
but Jovinianus is sure that they retain their inheritance.

28. But when Jovinianus supposes that the many mansions in our
Father's house are churches scattered throughout the world, who can
refrain from laughing; since Scripture plainly teaches in John's
Gospel that our Lord was discoursing not of the number of the
churches, but of the heavenly mansions, and the eternal tabernacles
for which the prophet longed? [4890] "In my Father's house," He says,
"are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I
will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am,
there ye may be also." The place and the mansions which Christ says He
would prepare for the apostles are of course in the Father's house,
that is, in the kingdom of heaven, not on earth, where for the present
He was leading the apostles. And at the same time regard must be had
to the sense of Scripture: "I might tell you," He says, "that I go to
prepare a place for you, if there were not many mansions in my
Father's house, that is to say, if each individual did not prepare for
himself a mansion through his own works rather than receive it through
the bounty of God. The preparation is therefore not mine, but yours."
This view is supported by the fact that it profited Judas nothing to
have a place prepared, since he lost it by his own fault. And we must
interpret in the same way what our Lord says to the sons of Zebedee,
one of whom wished to sit on His left hand, the other on His right:
[4891] "My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and
on my left hand, is not mine to give, but it is for them for whom it
hath been prepared of my Father." It is not the Son's to give; how
then is it the Father's to prepare? There are, He says, prepared in
heaven, many different mansions, destined for many different virtues,
and they will be awarded not to persons, but to persons' works. In
vain therefore do you ask of me what rests with yourselves, a reward
which my Father has prepared for those whose virtues will entitle them
to rise to such dignity. Again when He says: [4892] "I will come
again, and will receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may
be also," He is speaking especially to the apostles, concerning whom
it is elsewhere written, "That as I and thou, Father, are one, so they
also may be one in us," inasmuch as they have believed, have been
perfected, and can say, [4893] "the Lord is my portion." If, however,
there are not many mansions, how is it taught in the Old Testament
correspondingly with the New, that the chief priest has one rank, the
priests another, the Levites another, the door-keepers another, the
sacristans another? How is it that in the [4894] book of Ezekiel,
where a description is given of the future Church and of the heavenly
Jerusalem, the priests who have sinned are degraded to the rank of
sacristans and doorkeepers, and although they are in the temple of
God, that is on the right hand, they are not among the rams, but among
the poorest of the sheep? How again is it that in the river which
flows from the temple, and replenishes the salt sea, and gives new
life to everything, we read there are many kinds of fish? Why do we
read that in the kingdom of heaven there are Archangels, Angels,
Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, and every name
which is named, not only in this present world, but also that which is
to come? A difference of name is meaningless where there is not a
difference of rank. An Archangel is of course an Archangel to other
inferior angels, and Powers, and Dominions have other spheres over
which they exercise authority. This is what we find in heaven and in
the administration of God. You must not therefore smile and sneer at
us, as is your wont, for making a graduated series of emperors,
præfects and counts, tribunes and centurions, companies, and all the
other steps in the service.

29. It is mere trifling to quote the passage: [4895] "Know ye not that
your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost," for it is customary in
Holy Scripture to speak of a single object as though it were many, and
of many as though they were one. And Jovinianus himself should know
that even in a temple there are many divisions--the outer and the
inner courts, the vestibules, the holy place, and the Holy of Holies.
There are also in a temple kitchens, pantries, oil-cellars, and
cupboards for the vessels. And so in the temple of our body there are
different degrees of merit. God does not dwell in all alike, nor does
He impart Himself to all in the same degree. A portion of the spirit
of Moses was taken and given to the seventy elders. I suppose there is
a difference between the abundance of the river, and that of the
rivulets. [4896] Elijah's spirit was given in double measure to
Elisha, and thus double grace wrought greater miracles. Elijah while
living restored a dead man to life; Elisha after death did the same.
Elijah invoked famine on the people; Elisha in a single day put the
enemy's forces in the power of the city which they besieged. No doubt
the words, "Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy
Ghost," refer to the whole assembly of the faithful, who, joined
together, make up the one body of Christ. But the question now is, who
in the body is worthy to be the feet of Christ, and who the head? who
is His eye, and who His hand?--a distinction indicated by the [4897]
two women in the Gospel, the penitent and the holy woman, one of whom
held His feet, the other His head. Some authorities, however, think
there was only one woman, and that she who began at His feet gradually
advanced to His head. Jovinianus further urges against us our Lord's
words, [4898] "I pray not for these only, but also for those who shall
believe on me through their word: that as I, Father, in thee and thou
in me are one, so they all may be one in us," and reminds us that the
whole Christian people is one in God, and, as His well-beloved sons,
are [4899] "partakers of the divine nature." We have already said, and
the truth must now be inculcated more in detail, that we are not one
in the Father and the Son according to nature, but according to grace.
For the essence of the human soul and the essence of God are not the
same, as the Manichæans constantly assert. But, says our Lord: [4900]
"Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." You see, then, that we
are privileged to partake of His essence, not in the realm of nature,
but of grace, and the reason why we are beloved of the Father is that
He has loved the Son; and the members are loved, those namely of the
body. [4901] "For as many as received Christ, to them gave He power to
become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were
born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God." The Word was made flesh that we might pass from the
flesh into the Word. The Word did not cease to be what He had been;
nor did the human nature lose that which it was by birth. The glory
was increased, the nature was not changed. Do you ask how we are made
one body with Christ? Your creator shall be your instructor: [4902]
"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in
him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father,
so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. This is the
bread which came down out of heaven." But the Evangelist John, who had
drunk in wisdom from the breast of Christ, agrees herewith, and says:
[4903] "Hereby know we that we abide in him, and he in us, because he
hath given us of his Spirit. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the
Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God." If you believe in
Christ, as the apostles believed, you shall be made one body with them
in Christ. But, if it is rash for you to claim for yourself a faith
and works like theirs when you have not the same faith and works, you
cannot have the same place.

30. You repeat the words bride, sister, mother, and affirm that all
these are titles of the one Church and names applied to all believers.
The fact goes against you. For if the Church admits but one rank, and
has not many members in one body, what necessity is there for calling
her bride, sister, mother? It must be that she is the bride of some,
the sister of others, the mother of others. All indeed stand on the
right hand, but one stands as a bridegroom, another as a brother, a
third as a son. [4904] "My little children" says the Apostle, "of whom
I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you." Do you think
that the children who are being born and the apostle who is in travail
are of equal rank? And the folly of your contention that we love all
the members alike, and do not prefer the eye to the finger, nor the
hand to the ear, but that if one be lost all mourn, is proved by the
lesson which the apostle teaches the Corinthians: [4905] "Some members
are more honourable, others excite the sense of shame: and those parts
to which shame attaches are clothed with more abundant honour; whereas
our comely parts have no need of our care." Do you think that the
mouth and the belly, the eyes and the outlets of the body are to be
classed together as of equal merit? [4906] "The lamp of thy body," he
says, "is thine eye. If thine eye be blinded, thy whole body is in
darkness." If you cut off a finger, or the tip of the ear, there is
indeed pain, but the loss is not so great, nor is the disfigurement
attended by so much pain as it would be were you to take out the eyes,
mutilate the nose, or saw through a bone. Some members we can dispense
with and yet live: without others life is an impossibility. Some
offences are light, some heavy. It is one thing to owe ten thousand
talents, another to owe a farthing. We shall have to give account of
the idle word no less than of adultery; but it is not the same thing
to be put to the blush, and to be put upon the rack, to grow red in
the face and to ensure lasting torment. Do you think I am merely
expressing my own views? Hear what the Apostle John says: [4907] "He
who knows that his brother sinneth a sin not unto death, let him ask,
and he shall give him life, even to him that sinneth not unto death.
But he that hath sinned unto death, who shall pray for him?" You
observe that if we entreat for smaller offences, we obtain pardon: if
for greater ones, it is difficult to obtain our request: and that
there is a great difference between sins. And so with respect to the
people of Israel who had sinned a sin unto death, it is said to
Jeremiah: [4908] "Pray not thou for this people, neither entreat for
them, and do not withstand me, for I will not hear thee." Moreover, if
it be true that we all alike enter the world and all alike leave it,
and this is a precedent for the world to come, it follows that whether
righteous or sinners we shall all be equally esteemed by God, because
the conditions of our birth and death are now the same. And if you
contend that there are two Adams, the one of the earth, the other from
heaven; and that they who were in the earthly Adam stand on the left
hand, those who were in the heavenly are on the right hand, before we
go further, let me ask you a question concerning two brothers: Was
Esau in the earthly Adam, or in the heavenly? No one doubts that you
will reply, he was in the earthly. In which was Jacob? Without
hesitation you will say, in the heavenly. How then was he in the
heavenly when Christ had not yet come in the flesh--Christ who is
called the second Adam from heaven? You must either reckon all before
the incarnation of Christ in the old Adam, and even the just in the
man from the earth, and then they will be on the left among your
goats; or, if it be impious to give Isaac the same place as Ishmael,
Jacob as Esau, the saints as sinners, the last Adam will date from the
time when Christ was born of a Virgin, and your argument from the two
Adams will not benefit your sheep and goats, because we have proved
that in the first Adam there were both sheep and goats, and that of
those who were in one and the same man, some stood on the right hand
of God, others on the left: [4909] "For from Adam even until Moses
death reigned over all, even over them that had not sinned after the
likeness of Adam's transgression."

31. As regards your attempt to show that railing and murder, the use
of the expression raca and adultery, the idle word and godlessness,
are rewarded with the same punishment, I have already given you my
reply, and will now briefly repeat it. You must either deny that you
are a sinner if you are not to be in danger of Gehenna: or, if you are
a sinner you will be sent to hell for even a light offence: [4910]
"The mouth that lieth," says one, "kills the soul." I suspect that
you, like other men, have occasionally told a lie: [4911] for all men
are liars, that God alone may be true, [4912] and that He may be
justified in His words, and may prevail when He judges. It follows
either that you will not be a man lest you be found a liar: or if you
are a man and are consequently a liar, you will be punished with
parricides and adulterers. For you admit no difference between sins,
and the gratitude of those whom you raise from the mire and set on
high will not equal the rage against you of those whom for the
trifling offences of daily life you have thrust into utter darkness.
And if it be so that in a persecution one is stifled, another
beheaded, another flees, or the fourth dies within the walls of a
prison, and one crown of victory awaits various kinds of struggle, the
fact tells in our favour. For in martyrdom it is the will, which gives
occasion to the death, that is crowned. My duty is to resist the
frenzy of the heathen, and not deny the Lord. It rests with them
either to behead, or to burn, or to shut up in prison, or enforce
various other penalties. But if I escape, and die in solitude, there
will not at my death be the same crown for me as for them, because the
confession of Christ will not have been to me as to them the cause of
death. As for your remark that absolutely no difference was made
between the brother who had always been with his father, and him who
was afterwards welcomed as a penitent, I am willing to add, if you
like, that the one drachma which was lost and was found was put with
the others, and that the one sheep which the good shepherd, leaving
the ninety and nine, sought and brought back, made up the full tale of
a hundred. But it is one thing to be a penitent, and with tears sue
for pardon, another to be always with the father. And so both the
shepherd and the father say by the mouth of Ezekiel to the sheep that
was carried back, and to the son that was lost, [4913] "And I will
establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the
Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy
mouth ever more, because of thy shame, when I have forgiven thee all
that thou hast done." That penitents may have their due it is enough
for them to feel shame instead of all other punishment. Hence in
another place it is said to them, [4914] "Then shall ye remember your
evil ways, and all the crimes wherewith ye were defiled, and ye shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the wickedness that ye
have done; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have
done you good for my name's sake, and not according to your evil ways,
nor according to your evil doings." The son, moreover, was reproved by
his father for envying his brother's deliverance, and for being
tormented by jealousy while the angels in heaven were rejoicing. The
parallel, however, is not to be drawn between the merits of the two
sons (one of whom was temperate, the other a prodigal) and those of
the whole human race, but the characters depicted are either Jews and
Christians, or saints and penitents. In the lifetime of Bishop Damasus
I dedicated to him a small treatise upon this parable. [4915]

32. And if a penny was given to all the labourers, those of the first,
the third, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh hours, and they came
first for the reward who were the last to work in the vineyard, even
here the persons described do not belong to one time or one age, but
from the beginning of the world to the end of it there are different
calls and a special meaning attaches to each. Abel and Seth were
called at the first hour: Enoch and Noah at the third: Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob at the sixth: Moses and the prophets at the ninth: at the
eleventh the Gentiles, to whom the recompense was first given because
they believed on the crucified Lord, and inasmuch as it was hard for
them to believe they earned a great reward. Many kings and prophets
have desired to see the things that we see, and have not seen them.
But the one penny does not represent one reward, but one life, and one
deliverance from Gehenna. And as by the favour of the sovereign those
guilty of various crimes are released from prison, and each one,
according to his toil and exertions, is in this or that condition of
life, so too the penny, as it were by the favour of our Sovereign, is
the discharge from prison of us all by baptism. Now our work is,
according to our different virtues, to prepare for ourselves a
different future.

33. So far I have replied to the separate portions of his argument; I
shall now address myself to the general question. Our Lord says to his
disciples, [4916] "Whosoever would become great among you, let him be
least of all." If we are all to be equal in heaven, in vain do we
humble ourselves here that we may be greater there. Of the two debtors
who owed, one five hundred pence, the other fifty, he to whom most was
forgiven loved most. And so the Saviour says, [4917] "I say to you,
her sins which are many are forgiven her, for she hath loved much. But
to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." He who loves
little, and has little forgiven, he will of course be of inferior
rank. [4918] The householder when he set out delivered to his servants
his goods, to one five talents, to another two, to another one, to
each according to his ability. Just as in another Gospel it is written
that a nobleman setting out for a far country to receive for himself a
kingdom and return, called the servants, and gave them each a sum of
money, with which one gained ten pounds, another five, and they, each
according to his ability and the gain he had made, received ten or
five cities. But one who had received a talent, or a pound, buried it
in the ground, or tied it up in a napkin, and kept it until his
master's return. Our first thought is that if, according to the modern
Zeno, the righteous do not toil in hope of reward, but to avoid the
loss of what they already have, he who buried his pound or talent that
he might not lose it, did no wrong, and the caution of him who kept
his money is worthy of more praise than the fruitless toil of those
who wore themselves out and yet received no reward for their labour.
Then observe that the very talent which was taken from the timid or
negligent servant, was not given to him who had the smaller profit,
but to him who had gained the most, that is, to him who had been
placed over ten cities. If difference of rank is not constituted by
the difference in number, why did our Lord say, "He gave to everyone
according to his ability"? If the gain of five talents and ten talents
is the same, why were not ten cities given to him who gained the
least, and five to him who gained the most? But that our Lord is not
satisfied with what we have, but always desires more, He himself shows
by saying, "Wherefore didst thou not give my money to the
money-changers, that so when I came I might have received it with
usury?" The Apostle Paul understood this, and [4919] forgetting those
things which were behind, reached forward to those things which were
in front, that is, he made daily progress, and did not keep the grace
given to him carefully wrapped up in a napkin, but his spirit, like
the capital of a keen man of business, was renewed from day to day,
and if he were not always growing larger, he thought himself growing
less. Six cities of refuge are mentioned in the law, provided for
fugitives who were involuntary homicides, and the cities themselves
belonged to the priests. I should like to ask whether you would put
those fugitives among your goats, or among our sheep. If they were
goats, they would be slain like other homicides, and would not enter
the cities of God's ministers. If you say they were sheep, they will
not possibly be such sheep as can enjoy full liberty and feed without
fear of wolves. And it will be plain to you that sheep indeed they
are, but wandering sheep: that they are on the right hand, but do not
stand there: they flee until the High Priest dies and descending into
hell liberates their souls. The Gibeonites met the children of Israel,
and although other nations were slaughtered, they were kept [4920] for
hewers of wood and drawers of water. [4921] And of such value were
they in God's eyes, that the family of Saul was destroyed for the
wrong done to them. Where would you put them? Among the goats? But
they were not slain, and they were avenged by the determination of
God. Among the sheep? But holy Scripture says they were not of the
same merit as the Israelites. You see then that they do indeed stand
on the right hand, but are of a far inferior grade. Jonathan came
between David, the holy man, and Saul, the worst of kings, and we can
neither place him among the kids because he was worthy of a prophet's
love, nor amongst the rams lest we make him equal to David, and
particularly when we know that he was slain. He will, therefore, be
among the sheep, but low down. And just as in the case of David and
Jonathan, you will be bound to recognize differences between sheep and
sheep. [4922] "That servant, which knew his lord's will, and made not
ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall
be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him
shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of him will they
ask the more." Lo! more or less is committed to different servants,
and according to the nature of the trust, as well as of the sin, is
the number of stripes inflicted.

34. The whole account of the land of Judah and of the tribes is
typical of the church in heaven. Let us read Joshua the son of Nun, or
the concluding portions of Ezekiel, and we shall see that the
historical division of the land as related by the one finds a
counterpart in the spiritual and heavenly promises of the other. What
is the meaning of the seven and eight steps in the description of the
temple? or again, what significance attaches to the fact that in the
Psalter, after being taught the mystic alphabet by the [4923] one
hundred and eighteenth psalm we arrive by fifteen steps at the point
where we can sing: [4924] "Behold, now bless the Lord, all ye servants
of the Lord: ye who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of
the house of our God." Why did [4925] two tribes and a half dwell on
the other side of Jordan, a district abounding in cattle, while the
remaining nine tribes and a half either drove out the old inhabitants
from their possessions, or dwelt with them? Why did the tribe of Levi
[4926] receive no portion in the land, but have the Lord for their
portion? And how is it that of the priests and Levites, themselves,
the [4927] high priest alone entered the Holy of Holies where were the
cherubim and the mercy-seat? Why did the other priests wear [4928]
linen raiment only, and not have their clothing of wrought gold, blue,
scarlet, purple, and fine cloth? The priests and [4929] Levites of the
lower order took care of the oxen and wains: those of the higher order
carried the ark of the Lord on their shoulders. If you do away with
the gradations of the tabernacle, the temple, the Church, if, to use a
common military phrase, all upon the right hand are to be "up to the
same standard," bishops are to no purpose, priests in vain, deacons
useless. Why do virgins persevere? widows toil? Why do married women
practise continence? Let us all sin, and when once we have repented,
we shall be on the same footing as the apostles.

35. But now we have just sighted land: the foaming billows have been
rolling mountain-high: our ship has been borne aloft, or has rushed
headlong into the depths beneath: little by little the haven opens to
the view of the weary and exhausted sailors. We have discussed the
married, widows, and virgins. We have preferred virginity to
widowhood, widowhood to marriage. The passage of the apostle, in which
he treats questions of this kind, has been expounded, and particular
objections have been met. We also took a survey of secular literature,
and inquired what was thought of virgins, and what of those who had
one husband; and by way of contrast we pointed out the cares which
sometimes attend wedlock. Then we passed to the second division, in
which our opponent denies the possibility of sinning to those who have
been baptized with complete faith. And we showed that God alone is
faultless, and every creature is at fault, not because all have
sinned, but because all may sin, and those who stand have cause to
fear when they see the fall of men like themselves. In the third place
we came to fasting, and inasmuch as our opponent's argument fell under
two heads, and he appealed either to philosophy, or to Holy Scripture,
we also furnished a several reply. In the fourth, that is the last
section, the sheep and goats on the right hand and the left, the
righteous and the wicked, were distributed into two classes, the
intention being to show that there is no difference between one just
man and another, or between one sinner and another. To prove the point
Jovinianus had accumulated countless instances from Scripture which
apparently favoured his view, and this contention we rebutted both by
arguments and illustrations from Scripture, and pulverized Zeno's old
opinion no less with common sense than with the words of inspiration.

36. I must in conclusion say a few words to our modern Epicurus
wantoning in his gardens with his favourites of both sexes. On your
side are the fat and the sleek in their festal attire. If I may mock
like Socrates, add if you please, all swine and dogs, and, since you
like flesh so well, vultures too, eagles, hawks, and owls. We shall
never be afraid of the host of [4930] Aristippus. If ever I see a fine
fellow, or a man who is no stranger to the curling-irons, with his
hair nicely done and his cheeks all aglow, he belongs to your herd, or
rather grunts in concert with your pigs. To our flock belong the sad,
the pale, the meanly clad, who, like strangers in this world, though
their tongues are silent, yet speak by their dress and bearing. [4931]
"Woe is me," say they, "that my sojourning is prolonged! that I dwell
among the tents of Kedar!" that is to say, in the darkness of this
world, for the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not. Boast not of having many disciples. The Son of
God taught in Judæa, and only twelve apostles followed Him. [4932] "I
have trodden the wine-press alone," He says, "and of the peoples there
was no man with me." At the passion He was left alone, and even
Peter's fidelity to Him wavered: on the other hand all the people
applauded the doctrine of the Pharisees, saying, [4933] "Crucify him,
crucify him. We have no king but Cæsar," that is in effect, we follow
vice, not virtue; Epicurus, not Christ; Jovinianus, not the Apostle
Paul. If many assent to your views, that only indicates
voluptuousness; for they do not so much approve your utterances, as
favour their own vices. In our crowded thoroughfares a false prophet
may be seen any day stick in hand belabouring the fools about him, and
knocking out the teeth of those who offend him, and yet he never lacks
constant followers. And do you regard it as a mark of great wisdom if
you have a following of many pigs, whom you are feeding to make pork
for hell? Since you published your views, and set the mark of your
approval on baths in which the sexes bathe together, the impatience
which once threw over burning lust the semblance of a robe of modesty
has been laid bare and exposed. What was once hidden is now open to
the gaze of all. You have revealed your disciples, such as they are,
not made them. One result of your teaching is that sin is no longer
even repented of. Your virgins whom, with a depth of wisdom never
found before in speech or writing, you have taught the apostle's maxim
that it is better to marry than to burn, have turned secret adulterers
into acknowledged husbands. [4934] It was not the apostle, the chosen
vessel, who gave this advice; it was Virgil's widow:

[4935] "She calls it wedlock; thus she veils her fault."

37. About four hundred years have passed since the preaching of Christ
flashed upon the world, and during that time in which His robe has
been torn by countless heresies, almost the whole body of error has
been derived from the Chaldæan, Syriac, and Greek languages.
Basilides, the master of licentiousness and the grossest sensuality,
after the lapse of so many years, and like a second [4936] Euphorbus,
was changed by transmigration into Jovinian, so that the Latin tongue
might have a heresy of its own. Was there no other province in the
whole world to receive the gospel of pleasure, and into which the
serpent might insinuate itself, except that which was founded by the
teaching of Peter, upon the rock Christ? Idol temples had fallen
before the standard of the Cross and the severity of the Gospel: now
on the contrary lust and gluttony endeavour to overthrow the solid
structure of the Cross. And so God says by Isaiah, [4937] "O my
people, they which bless you cause you to err, and trouble the paths
of your feet." Also by Jeremiah, [4938] "Flee out of the midst of
Babylon, and save every man his life, and believe not the false
prophets which say, Peace, peace, and there is no peace;" who are
always repeating, [4939] "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord." "Thy prophets have seen for thee false and foolish things; they
have not laid bare thine iniquity that they might call thee to
repentance: who devour God's people like bread: they have not called
upon God." Jeremiah announced the captivity and was stoned by the
people. [4940] Hananiah, the son of Azzur, broke the bars of wood for
the present, but was preparing bars of iron for the future. False
prophets always promise pleasant things, and please for a time. Truth
is bitter, and they who preach it are filled with bitterness. For with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth the Lord's passover is
kept, and it is eaten with bitter herbs. Admirable are your utterances
and worthy of the ears of the bride of Christ standing in the midst of
her virgins, and widows, and celibates! (their very name is [4941]
derived from the fact that they who abstain from intercourse are fit
for heaven). This is what you say: "Fast seldom, marry often. You
cannot do the work of marriage unless you take mead, and flesh, and
solid food. For lust strength is required. Flesh is soon spent and
enervated. You need not be afraid of fornication. He who has been once
baptized into Christ cannot fall, for he has the consolation of
marriage to slake his lust. And if you do fall, repentance will
restore you, and you who were hypocrites at baptism may have a firm
faith in your repentance. Be not disturbed by the thought of a
difference between the righteous and the penitent, and do not imagine
that pardon even gives a lower place; rather believe that it takes
away your crown. For there is one reward: he who stands on the right
hand shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Through counsels such as
these your swine-herds are richer than our shepherds, and the he-goats
draw after them many of the other sex: [4942] "They were as fed
horses: they were mad after women": they no sooner see a woman than
they neigh after her, and, shame to say! find scriptural authority for
the consolation of their incontinence. But the very women, unhappy
creatures! though they deserve no pity, who chant the words of their
instructor (for what does God require of them but to become mothers?),
have lost not only their chastity, but all sense of shame, and defend
their licentious practices with an access of impudence. You have,
moreover, in your army many subalterns, you have your guardsmen and
your skirmishers at the outposts, the round-bellied, the well-dressed,
the exquisites, and noisy orators, to defend you with tooth and nail.
The noble make way for you, the wealthy print kisses on your face. For
unless you had come, the drunkard and the glutton could not have
entered paradise. All honor to your virtue, or rather to your vices!
You have in your camp, even amazons with uncovered breasts, bare arms
and knees, who challenge the men who come against them to a battle of
lust. Your household is a large one, and so in your aviaries not only
turtle-doves, but hoopoes are fed, which may wing their flight over
the whole field of rank debauchery. Pull me to pieces and scatter me
to the winds: tax me with what offences you please: accuse me of
luxurious and delicate living: you would like me better if I were
guilty, for I should belong to your herd.

38. But I will now address myself to you, great Rome, who with the
confession of Christ have blotted out the blasphemy written on your
forehead. Mighty city, mistress-city of the world, city of the
Apostle's praises, shew the meaning of your name. Rome is either
strength in Greek, or height in Hebrew. Lose not the excellence your
name implies: let virtue lift you up on high, let not voluptuousness
bring you low. By repentance, as the history of Nineveh proves, you
may escape the curse wherewith the Saviour threatened you in the
Apocalypse. Beware of the name of Jovinianus. It is derived from that
of an idol. [4943] The Capitol is in ruins: the temples of Jove with
their ceremonies have perished. Why should his name and vices flourish
now in the midst of you, when even in the time of Numa Pompilius, even
under the sway of kings, your ancestors gave a heartier welcome to the
self-restraint of Pythagoras than they did under the consuls to the
debauchery of Epicurus?

Footnotes

[4652] This, according to i. 3, is "cannot be overthrown."
[4653] 1 John iii. 9, 10.
[4654] 1 John v. 18.
[4655] 1 John v. 21.
[4656] 1 John i. 8 sq.
[4657] Is. lxv. 5. Quoted from memory. The LXX and Vulg. have like
A.V. and Rev., "Come not near me."
[4658] 1 John ii. 1.
[4659] 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.
[4660] Ps. li. 12.
[4661] 1 John ii. 4.
[4662] 1 John xiv. 6.
[4663] James ii. 26.
[4664] Jerome is perhaps hinting at the opinions of Jovinianus, that
there was no other distinction between men than the grand division
into righteous and wicked, and drawing from this the inference that
whoever had been truly baptized had nothing further to gain by
progress in the Christian life.
[4665] 1 Peter ii. 22.
[4666] James iii. 2.
[4667] Job xiv. 4, 5, Sept.
[4668] Prov. xx. 9.
[4669] Ps. li. 5.
[4670] Job ix. 20, 30. Sept.
[4671] 1 John ii. 1, 2.
[4672] S. John xiii. 10.
[4673] S. Matt. xvi. 18.
[4674] S. Luke xxi. 31.
[4675] S. Matt. vi. 12.
[4676] 1 Cor. ix. 27.
[4677] 2 Cor. xii. 7.
[4678] 2 Cor. xi. 3.
[4679] 2 Cor. ii. 10, 11.
[4680] 1 Cor. x. 13.
[4681] 1 Cor. x. 12.
[4682] Gal. v. 7.
[4683] 1 Thess. ii. 18.
[4684] 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[4685] Gal. v. 16, 17.
[4686] Eph. vi. 12.
[4687] Heb. vi. 4 sq.
[4688] Various dates, ranging between a.d. 126 and a.d. 173, are
assigned to the origin of Montanism. In addition to the tenet, that
the church has no power to remit sin after baptism (though the power
was claimed for the Montanistic prophets) and that some sins exclude
for ever from the communion of the saints on earth, although the mercy
of God may be extended to them hereafter, Montanus held second
marriages to be no better than adultery, proscribed military service
and secular life in general, denounced profane learning and amusements
of every kind, advocated extreme simplicity of female dress, practised
frequent and severe fasting, and inculcated the most rigorous
asceticism. The sect produced a great effect on the church and lasted
until the sixth century. As is well known, Tertullian in middle life
lapsed into Montanism, and he was the most distinguished of its
champions. Montanism has been described as an anticipation of the
mediaeval system of Rome.
[4689] The founder of the schism which afterwards bore the name of
Novatian was Novatus, a presbyter of Carthage who went to Rome (about
a.d. 250) and there co-operated with Novatianus, one of the most
distinguished of the clergy of that city. The Novatianists, whose
doctrines were near akin in many respects to those of Montanists,
assumed the name of Cathari, or Puritans.
[4690] Heb. vi. 9.
[4691] James i. 12 sq.
[4692] Ecclus. xxvii. 5.
[4693] Ecclus. ii. 1.
[4694] James i. 22 sq.
[4695] James ii. 10.
[4696] Rom. xi. 32.
[4697] 2 Pet. ii. 9.
[4698] 2 Pet. ii. 17, 18.
[4699] Prov. xvi. 5. Sept.
[4700] Apoc. ii. 2 sq.
[4701] Matt. xi. 13.
[4702] 1 Cor. x. 11.
[4703] Ps. xxvi. 1, 2.
[4704] Ps. li. 1.
[4705] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13.
[4706] 2 Kings xxiii. 29 sq. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20 sq.
[4707] Zech. iii. 1 sq.
[4708] Numb. xx. 13; Ps. cvi. 32.
[4709] Job v. 17.
[4710] Job vii. 1.
[4711] Jerome blends two passages, Is. xiv. 12 (in which the Sept.
reading is "that sendest to;" R.V. "didst lay low") and Ezek. xxviii.
13 sq. In the passage from Isaiah the king of Babylon is compared to
Lucifer, i.e. the shining one, the morning star, whose movements the
Babylonians had been the first to record. See Sayce, Fresh Light from
the Ancient Monuments, p. 178, and Cheyne's Isaiah. The subject of
Ezekiel's prophecy is the Prince of Tyre.
[4712] S. Luke x. 18.
[4713] Job xl. 16, 21. R.V. "He lieth under the lotus trees, in the
covert of the reed and the fen."
[4714] Job xli. 34. Sept. R.V. "King over the sons of pride."
[4715] Job xli. 13 sq. R.V. for the latter part of the verse has
"Round about his teeth is terror, his strong scales are his pride."
Jerome's words are not found in the existing Septuagint.
[4716] The Septuagint omits much in this portion of the Book of Job.
[4717] xli. 27.
[4718] That is, deriving jumenta from juvo. The derivation, however,
is from jungo.
[4719] Ps. viii. 5 sq.
[4720] The Italian beccafico.
[4721] Rom. xiv. 20; 1 Tim. iv. 5.
[4722] 1 Tim. iv. 3.
[4723] Castum. Another reading is Cossum i.e. wood-worms, which were
considered a delicacy in Pontus and Phrygia. The reading Castum is
supported by Tert., De Iejun. cap. 16: In nostris xerophagiis
blasphemias ingerens. Casto Isidis et Cybeles eos adæquas. Compare
Arnob. Bk. V., and Jerome's Letter cvii. ad Lætam c. 10, and below c.
7.
[4724] See note on p. 383.
[4725] That is, of Side in Pamphylia. He lived in the reigns of
Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, a.d. 117-161. Only two fragments remain of
his Greek poem in forty-two books.
[4726] He appears to be Flavius the Grammarian to whom reference is
made in the Book on Illustrious Men, chap. 80:--Firmianus, qui et
Lactantius, Arnobii discipulus, sub Diocletiano principe accitus cum
Flavio grammatico, cujus de Medicinalibus versu compositi exstant
libri, etc.
[4727] Born a.d. 23. His Historia Naturalis embraces astronomy,
meteorology, geography, mineralogy, zo÷logy, and botany, and comprises
according to the author's own account 20,000 matters of importance
drawn from 2,000 volumes.
[4728] A native of Cilicia, who probably lived in the second century
of the Christian era. He was a Greek physician and wrote a treatise on
Materia Medica, in 5 books, which is still extant.
[4729] 2 Cor. xii. 14.
[4730] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
[4731] Phil. i. 23.
[4732] Rom. xiii. 14.
[4733] Matt. x. 9, xix. 21; Mark vi. 8.
[4734] Matt. xix. 21.
[4735] 1 Cor. xv. 85.
[4736] 1 Cor. vi. 13.
[4737] That is, the wood-worm just referred to.
[4738] Pannonia, of which Valens also was a native.
[4739] This name, which signifies dwellers in caves, was applied by
Greek geographers to various peoples, but especially to the
uncivilized inhabitants of the west coast of the Red Sea, along the
shores of Upper Egypt and Ăthiopia. The whole coast was called
Troglodytice.
[4740] In 376 the Goths were driven out of their country by the Huns.
They were allowed by Valens to cross the Danube, but war soon broke
out and the emperor was defeated with great slaughter on Aug. 9, 378.
[4741] The Sarmatians dwelt on the N. E. of the Sea of Azov, E. of the
river Don.
[4742] They were located in the S. E. of Germany.
[4743] The name given to the great confederacy of German peoples who
in a.d. 409 traversed Germany and Gaul, and invaded Spain. In 429 they
conquered all the Roman dominions in Africa, and in 455 they plundered
Rome. Their kingdom was destroyed by Belisarius in 535.
[4744] A people of Central Asia. Cyrus the Great was slain in an
expedition against them.
[4745] On the Oxus near its entrance into the Caspian Sea.
[4746] An agricultural people on the W. coast of Pontus.
[4747] Hyrcania was a province of the Persian Empire, on the S. and S.
E. shores of the Caspian or Hyrcanian Sea. Jerome draws many of these
details from the treatise of Porphyry Peri apoches empsuchion.
[4748] Antinous was drowned in the Nile. a.d. 122. The emperor's grief
was so great that he enrolled his favourite amongst the gods, caused a
temple to be erected to his honour at Mantinea, and founded the city
of Antinoopolis.
[4749] Ter. Eunuch. iv. 5, 6.
[4750] Jer. ix. 21.
[4751] An Egyptian perfuming powder.
[4752] Probably an ointment made from the grape of the wild vine.
[4753] The celebrated Cynic philosopher. He died at Corinth, at the
age of nearly 90, b.c. 323.
[4754] Academia was a piece of land on the Cephisus about
three-quarters of a mile from Athens, originally belonging to the hero
Academus. Here was a Gymnasium with plane and olive plantations, etc.
Plato had a piece of land in the neighbourhood; here he taught, and
after him his followers, who were hence called Academici. Cicero
called his villa Academia.
[4755] Flourished about b.c. 320. Though heir to a large fortune he
renounced it all, and lived and died as a true Cynic. He was called
the "door-opener," because it was his practice to visit every house at
Athens and rebuke its inmates.
[4756] A common form of Gnostic error revived many centuries
afterwards by the Anabaptists.
[4757] 1 Tim. v. 6.
[4758] See Cicero, Repub. Bk. III.
[4759] Sallust. In Cat. ch. 1.
[4760] Prov. xx. 1.
[4761] The most celebrated physician of antiquity. Born about b.c.
460, died about 357.
[4762] Born at Pergamum a.d. 130, died probably in the year 200. His
writings are considered to have had a more extensive influence on
medical science than even those of Hippocrates.
[4763] Fabricius was censor in b.c. 275, and devoted himself to
repressing the prevalent taste for luxury. The story of his expelling
from the Senate P. Cornelius Rufinus because he possessed ten pounds'
weight of silver-plate is well-known.
[4764] Curius Dentatus, Consul b.c. 290 with P. Cornelius Rufinus to
whom allusion has just been made, was no less distinguished for
simplicity of life than was Fabricius. He was censor b.c. 272.
[4765] Ep. Lib. I. ep. 2.
[4766] Or, "an ante-room to the closet"--Meditatorium. Comp.
Tertullian, Treatise on Fasting, ch. 6.
[4767] The Peripatetic philosopher, geographer, and historian, a
disciple of Aristotle and the friend of Theophrastus.
[4768] Chæremon was chief librarian of the Alexandrian library. He
afterwards became one of Nero's tutors.
[4769] Wars, Book II., ch. viii. 2 sq.; Antiquities, Bk. xviii. I. 2
sq. Josephus nowhere says that the Essenes abstained from flesh and
wine, or fasted daily. Philo commends them for so doing. Jerome here,
as above, borrows from Porphyry. The "Wars of the Jews or History of
the Destruction of Jerusalem," are here called the "History of the
Jewish Captivity."
[4770] Philo the Jew. His exact date cannot be given; but he was
advanced in years when he went to Rome (a.d. 40) on his famous embassy
in behalf of his countrymen.
[4771] Neanthes lived about b.c. 241. He was a voluminous writer,
chiefly on historical subjects.
[4772] There were many physicians of this name.
[4773] The sun-god of the Persians.
[4774] Supposed to be the same as the Bardesanes born at Edessa in
Mesopotamia, who flourished in the latter half of the second century.
Jerome again refers to him in the book on Illustrious Men, c. 33.
[4775] Xenocrates was born b.c. 396, died b.c. 314.
[4776] Triptolemus was the legendary inventor of the plough and of
agriculture.
[4777] Poems ascribed to the mythical Orpheus are quoted by Plato. The
extant poems which bear his name are forgeries of Christian
grammarians and philosophers of the Alexandrine school; but some
fragments of the old Orphic poetry are said to be remaining.
[4778] Antisthenes was the founder of the Cynic philosophy. He was a
devoted disciple of Socrates and flourished about b.c. 366.
[4779] The distinguished Peripatetic philosopher and historian. He
lived, probably, about the time of Ptolemy Philopator (b.c. 222-205).
[4780] Gen. vi. 3, 5.
[4781] Gen. viii. 21; ix. 3.
[4782] Ex. xvi. 3.
[4783] Numb. xi. 4-6.
[4784] Deut. xxxii. 15. "Beloved" (dilectus). Correctly Jeshurun, that
is, the Upright, a name of Israel.
[4785] Deut. viii. 12-14.
[4786] The curious custom of representing Moses with horns arose from
a mistake in the Vulgate rendering. The Hebrew verb L+W+Q+u, to emit
rays, is derived from a word which, meaning mostly a horn, has in the
dual the signification rays of light. See Hab. iii. 4.
[4787] Luke ix. 31.
[4788] Ex. xvii. 8.
[4789] Josh. x. 13.
[4790] 1 Sam. xiv. 24. Heb. "entered into the wood." The English
version follows the Hebrew. The Sept. erhista (Jerome's prandebat) is
perhaps only a repetition of the preceding thought. Another rendering
inserts the negative, ouk erista.
[4791] 1 Sam. xiv. 24.
[4792] 1 Kings xix. 8-11.
[4793] 1 Sam. vii. 7.
[4794] 2 Kings xviii.
[4795] Gen. xviii. 23 sq.
[4796] 1 Kings xxi. 27-29.
[4797] 1 Sam. i. 15, 17.
[4798] Dan. i and ii.
[4799] Dan. ix. 23. Heb. A man of desires. A.V. greatly beloved.
[4800] The story is in the apocryphal part of the book of Daniel.
[4801] Ps. cii. 9.
[4802] Ps. cix. 24.
[4803] 2 Sam. xii. 13.
[4804] Lev. x. 9.
[4805] Amos ii. 12.
[4806] Jer. xxxv. 18.
[4807] S. Luke ii. 36.
[4808] S. Jerome is in accord with the Vulgate, Peshito, and certain
manuscripts, but the R.V. omits S. Matt. xvii. 21 (Howbeit this kind
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting) and in S. Mark ix. 29 omits
the words respecting fasting. S. Luke does not refer to our Lord's
supposed remark.
[4809] Acts x. 4.
[4810] 2 Cor. xi. 27.
[4811] 1 Tim. v. 23.
[4812] 1 Tim. iv. 3.
[4813] Prov. xvi. 26. Sept.
[4814] S. Matt. xi. 12.
[4815] Rom. xiv. 3.
[4816] Rom. xiv. 14 sq.
[4817] Rom. xiv. 2.
[4818] Rom. xiv. 5 sq.
[4819] S. Matt. v. 6.
[4820] S. John iv. 32.
[4821] S. Matt. v. 34. (Rather, not to be anxious about it.)
[4822] S. Luke xxiv. 42; S. John xxi. 13.
[4823] S. Luke xv. 19-31.
[4824] S. Matt. xvi. 17, 18.
[4825] See above.
[4826] S. Mark v. 43: S. Luke viii. 55. Our Lord is not related to
have given the command in the case of the son of the widow of Nain, or
in that of Lazarus.
[4827] S. John xii. 2.
[4828] Acts x. 10. In our version "the housetop."
[4829] S. John iv. 6.
[4830] Isa. lviii. 5 sq.
[4831] xvi. 29.
[4832] Numb. xi. 34. Tertullian also speaks of the graves remaining.
[4833] 1 Kings xiii. 24.
[4834] Joel i. 14; ii. 15. Jerome agrees with the Sept. Therapeia. The
Heb. root signifies to close or bind; hence the meaning healing. But
others translate Therapeia by worship, or service. The correct
rendering appears to be a solemn assembly as in A.V.
[4835] S. Matt. xxv. 34.
[4836] S. Matt. xxv. 41.
[4837] S. John viii. 44.
[4838] S. Matt. xix. 29; S. Mark x. 29, 30; S. Luke xviii. 29, 30.
[4839] S. John vi. 56.
[4840] S. John xiv. 23.
[4841] S. John xiv. 2.
[4842] 1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19.
[4843] S. John xvii. 20-23.
[4844] In Cyprus, where Zeno the founder of the Stoic school was born.
[4845] i.e., Jovinianus. Jerome for the moment addresses the reader.
[4846] Persius I. 128, Conington's translation.
[4847] Ezek. xxxiv. 17, 20, 21.
[4848] Ezek. xxxiv. 31.
[4849] Rom. xii. 3 sq.
[4850] Rom. xiv. 5.
[4851] 1 Cor. iii. 6 sq.
[4852] 1 Cor. iii. 10 sq.
[4853] 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2.
[4854] 1 Cor. ix. 13 sq.
[4855] 1 Cor. xii. 4.
[4856] 1 Cor. xii. 12.
[4857] 1 Cor. xii. 28 sq.
[4858] 1 Cor. xiii. 8, 9, 10.
[4859] 1 Cor. xiii. 18; xiv. 1.
[4860] 1 Cor. xiv. 5.
[4861] 1 Cor. xiv. 18.
[4862] 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10.
[4863] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[4864] 1 Cor. xv. 39.
[4865] Job ix. 9; xxxviii. 32.
[4866] 2 Cor. v. 10.
[4867] 2 Cor. ix. 6.
[4868] Eph. iii. 10.
[4869] Eph. iv. 7.
[4870] Ps. lxxiii. 17.
[4871] See Acts xxvii. 23 and the context.
[4872] Gen. xix. 18-21.
[4873] 1 Sam. xxx. 1 sq.
[4874] S. Luke xiii. 4.
[4875] 1 Cor. xi. 27.
[4876] Mal. iv. 2.
[4877] S. Matt. xxv. 13.
[4878] S. John xix. 6.
[4879] Wisd. vi. 7.
[4880] Ex. xxi. 2.
[4881] Lev. xxv. 13.
[4882] S. Matt. xix. 29; S. Mark x. 30; S. Luke xviii. 30. In S.
Matthew some authorities agree with S. Luke in reading "manifold."
[4883] Matt. xi. 11.
[4884] S. Luke xvii. 5.
[4885] Matt. xiv. 31.
[4886] Jer. xxxi. 31.
[4887] Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.
[4888] S. Matt. v. 19.
[4889] S. Luke xiv. 9.
[4890] S. John xiv. 2, 3.
[4891] S. Matt. xx. 23.
[4892] S. John xiv. 3.
[4893] Ps. lxxiii. 26.
[4894] Ez. xliv. 10.
[4895] 1 Cor. vi. 19.
[4896] Correctly, a portion of two, i.e., the portion of a first-born.
Deut. xxi. 17.
[4897] S. Luke vii., S. Matt. xxvi., S. Mark xiv., S. John xii.
[4898] S. John xvii. 20, 21.
[4899] 2 Pet. i. 4.
[4900] S. John xvii. 23.
[4901] S. John i. 12, 13.
[4902] S. John vi. 57 sq.
[4903] 1 John iv. 13, 15.
[4904] Gal. iv. 19.
[4905] 1 Cor. xii. 22-24.
[4906] S. Luke xi. 34.
[4907] 1 John v. 16.
[4908] Jer. vii. 16.
[4909] Rom. v. 14.
[4910] Wisd. i. 11.
[4911] Ps. cxvi. 11; Rom. iii. 4.
[4912] Ps. li. 4.
[4913] Ezek. xvi. 62, 63.
[4914] Ezek. xxxvi. 31, 32.
[4915] Letter XXI.
[4916] S. Matt. xx. 26.
[4917] S. Luke vii. 47.
[4918] S. Matt. xxv. 15 sq.
[4919] Phil. iii. 13.
[4920] Josh. ix. 27.
[4921] 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
[4922] S. Luke xii. 47, 48.
[4923] Ps. cxix. in our arrangement of the Psalter. The psalm is
divided into twenty-two portions, which begin with the successive
letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The following fifteen psalms are
called in our Authorized Version, Songs of Degrees (Vulgate, graduum,
steps). For the origin of the title, Wordsworth, or Neal and
Littledale on Ps. cxx. may be consulted.
[4924] Ps. cxxxiv. 1.
[4925] Numb. xxxiv. 15; Josh. xiv. 3.
[4926] Numb. xviii. 20.
[4927] Lev. xvi. 2; Heb. ix. 7.
[4928] Ex. xxviii. etc.
[4929] Numb. vii. 5.
[4930] Aristippus though the disciple of Socrates, taught that
pleasure was the highest good.
[4931] Ps. cxx. 5.
[4932] Is. lxiii. 3.
[4933] S. John xix. 6, 15.
[4934] Jovinianus's doctrine is said to have influenced some who had
taken a vow of virginity, to marry.
[4935] Virgil Ăn. iv. 172.
[4936] Pythagoras asserted that he had once been the Trojan Euphorbus.
[4937] Is. iii. 16.
[4938] Jer. li. 6; vi. 14.
[4939] Jer. vii. 4; Ps. xiv. 4; liii. 4.
[4940] Jer. xxviii. 13.
[4941] That is, cælebs from cælum.
[4942] Jer. v. 8.
[4943] That is, Jove.